Benazir/Zardari followed by nawaz made these IPP contracts .. They have sovereign national guarantees till 2028 to 2030..
This means that as things stand the government is in a quagmire for almost whole or atleast better half of 2020s.
The circular debt will keep on growing unless you change the nature or the contracts or buy out the companies with its future potential and current and future liabilities. This will make it a smaller pill to swallow.
Similarly,
To bring the energy mix down in the world.. one needs competitive bidding for hydel and solar/wind projects followed by coal.. nuclear and LNG projects. The problem with Pakistan is that the CPEC projects, though cheaper than furnace and diesel projects are still on the higher side of the hydel rates. This is because no other nation was willing to invest 1 billion plus per most of these projects. These projects again have 25 to 30 years sovereign guarantees thus leading to a double whammy for Pakistan.
Even if we increase the power consumption via industrialisation, even then we can not decrease the electricity rates and the 9 cents per unit being sold to export industries will still be lower than the average electricity rate.
To conclude..
No matter who signed the contracts.. IPPs or CPEC ... the rates need to be decreased by one means or the other.