The parliament, the prime minister's offices and the president's official residence had their electricity supply cut off by the Pakistani government for non-payment of bills, apart from several major official buildings on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported.
Rolling power cuts are consistently caused by sections of people not paying their bills, with government offices among the worst offenders.
Although ordinary people struggle without electricity for 12 to 18 hours a day in the blistering heat of summer, no action has been taken against recalcitrant bureaucrats working in air-conditioned offices up till now.
Minister for water and power Abid Sher Ali announced an "indiscriminate drive" to recover unpaid bills and warned that all offices and customers who had defaulted would be cut off, AFP reported.
"I have issued orders that the electricity supply to Parliament Lodges, Parliament House and President's Secretariat should be disconnected immediately for non-payment of millions of rupees of bills," he said.
The Capital Development Authority, Islamabad's civic agency which is responsible for paying government offices' bills, owes the Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (IESCO) 2.36 billion rupees ($24 million).
While lawmakers' residential block, Parliament Lodges, had to pay 20 million rupees to IESCO, 28 million rupees is owed by the President's Secretariat, which is the head of state's office and residence, he added.
More than 100 government offices suffered the brunt of non-payment of bills when their electricity supply was disconnected, power company officials said.
In the run-up to the 2013 general election, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's key campaign pledge was to solve the country's energy crisis.
"But the daily power cuts, known euphemistically as 'load-shedding", have already begun this year, even though there is still at least a month to go before the height of summer, when temperatures in some places top 50 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit)," AFP reported.
Apart from electricity disconnections, the state-run gas company also cut off the natural gas supply to the prime minister's offices.
