Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday that the federal government would be terminating its contract with five independent power producers (IPPs) in the first phase, promising relief to the inflation-hit people.

There was an uproar across Pakistan recently as people have been receiving high electricity bills, which prompted the Shehbaz-led administration to reconsider the agreements with IPPs as capacity payment charges are included in power bills.

"Consumers will save Rs60 billion overall annually and the national exchequer will save Rs411 billion. These five IPPs kept the nation's interests first and their interests aside. The take and pay system has ended for them," the prime minister told his cabinet members.

This is a developing story and is being updated with more details.