By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered an inquiry into a major breakdown in the national grid caused a massive power outage nationwide as electricity is being restored in the country after a blackout of almost 16 hours.
The nationwide power outage which occurred at 7:34 am Monday lasted for almost 24 hours in some cities and impacted schools, hospitals, and industrial units.
Energy Minister Khurram Dastagir claimed that electricity has been fully restored at grid stations across the country.
However, major cities, including Karachi, Quetta, and Lahore, remained deprived of power till early Tuesday morning.
“Power at all 1,112 stations of the national grid has been restored,” the minister tweeted.
PM Sharif took “serious notice of the countrywide breakdown” and ordered an investigation into the incident and sought a detailed report.
The primer also “constituted a three-member committee to investigate the matter and fix a responsibility”.
The blackout, which Minister Dastagir claimed was caused by a power surge, is the second significant grid breakdown in three months.
The power outage occurred after a technical fault was reported in the transmission line from Guddu to Quetta, causing the reduction of the power frequency from the optimum level.
Before midnight, power was back in Karachi, the country’s largest city and economic hub, and in many other major cities including Rawalpindi, Quetta, Peshawar, and Lahore.
In Lahore, a closing notice was posted on the Orange Line metro stations, with rail workers guarding the sites and trains parked on the rails.
The outage hit Internet and mobile phone services.
Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org said network data showed a significant decline in internet access in Pakistan that was attributed to the power outage. It said metrics indicated that connectivity was at 60 percent of ordinary levels as many users struggled to get online Monday.
The State Department also sympathises with Pakistanis affected by power outages.
Ned Price, state department spokesperson, at a weekly press briefing on Monday, said “our thoughts are with all those who’ve been affected by the outages”.
He said the US had assisted Pakistan across several challenges. “We are prepared to do so in this case if there is something that we’re able to provide. But I’m not aware of any requests.”
Analysts and officials blame the power problems on an ageing electricity network, which like much of the national infrastructure, desperately needs an upgrade that the government says it can ill afford.
The country has made little progress in upgrading its aging power transmission infrastructure, despite repeated recent outages, including a major outage of the national power grid in January 2021.
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