The provision of electrical power is of critical importance in any country’s economic growth and development. Since independence, Pakistan has experimented with two major systems of power provision: a vertically integrated system under WAPDA since 1959 with Production, Transmission and Distribution under a single organization, and an ‘unbundled’ system with private sector participation since the early 1990s that separated these three functions, managed by over two dozen public sector entities and a private sector concentrated in power production. WAPDA achieved significant national milestones, but its operations were hampered by various factors that were not necessarily of its own making. The persistence of these problems led to the unbundling of the WAPDA led system, ushering in the private sector-led IPP model and a plethora of public sector entities managing it. However, except for production, not a single target/aim that was set at the time of WAPDAs unbundling has been met. Even the production aspect has come at a hefty price to the exchequer and the consumer. The liabilities of the sector have assumed such proportions that it has put the entire fiscal operations of the federal government at stake, reflecting a poorly managed, inefficient, and unproductive system. The cost-benefit analysis concludes that the previous system under WAPDA was better in terms of benefits accrued. The conclusion of this research effort is that the decision to unbundle WAPDA was poorly thought out and badly executed. In the Way Forward, it is proposed that the best strategy now is to decentralize the system to the provincial level, with competition, a competitive trading market, and optimizing upon relative comparative advantage at the core of the new strategy.