ISLAMABAD—Pakistani officials who have failed for years to fix the country's rampant energy shortages have latched on to a local engineer's dubious claim to have invented a water-fuelled car, sparking criticism from experts who bemoan what the episode says about the sorry state of the government.

Excitement over the supposed discovery has been fueled by sensationalist TV talk show hosts, who have hailed the middle-aged engineer, Agha Waqar Ahmed, as a national hero and gushed about the billions of dollars Pakistan could save on oil imports.

Several prominent Pakistani scientists have also jumped on the bandwagon, including the head of the government's top scientific council and another state-run science foundation.

The only catch seems to be that developing a vehicle that efficiently runs on water defies the basic laws of physics, detractors say. Critical Pakistani scientists say it is the car's battery, not the water, that's key to powering the vehicle. That has done little to dent the hype surrounding Ahmed's invention.

"Demonstration of water-fuelled car astonishes experts," read the headline in Dawn newspaper at the end of July after the engineer drove his vehicle in front of a crowd of over 100 Pakistani officials, engineers, scientists and journalists at a sprawling sports complex in Islamabad.

Ahmed began the demonstration by disconnecting the rubber hose that fed gasoline into the car's engine and replacing it with a tube connected to his "water kit." The engineer says the kit powers the car through the process of electrolysis, whereby a current from the battery passes through distilled water filled with electrolytes, separating out the hydrogen from the oxygen. The hydrogen, which is combustible, is fed into the engine to power it, he added.

"You will see a revolution in Pakistan if we use this technology," said Ahmed. "Most of our problems are due to shortage of electricity and the increasing energy crisis."

Pakistan suffers from severe electricity shortages, with some parts of the country experiencing blackouts for up to 20 hours per day. There are various reasons for the crisis, but a core problem has been a shortage of fuel oil and natural gas to run power plants. Natural gas is also used to power many cars in Pakistan.

The power shortages regularly spark protests by citizens angry at the country's politicians, many of whom are seen as corrupt, and more concerned with keeping power than solving the country's problems.

One of Ahmed's biggest supporters has been the religious affairs minister, Khurshid Shah, who like him is from southern Sindh province. Shah drove the engineer's car during his demonstration and said he was amazed by the performance of the water kit.