Pakistan plunged into total darkness after nationwide power outage
10 January 2021, 09:01 | Updated: 10 January 2021, 09:13
Pakistan was plunged into total darkness on Saturday after a major power outage caused a nationwide blackout.
The massive power cut left virtually the whole country in the dark late last night following a major technical fault in its electricity generation and distribution system.
Hours later, Minister for Energy Omar Ayub said on Twitter that power was being restored in phases, starting with the capital Islamabad.
On Sunday, he confirmed that electricity had been restored to most of the country.
Reports of a blackout first surfaced on social media in posts by residents of major urban centres, such as the capital, Karachi, Lahore and Multan.
Mr Ayib and his spokesman later used Twitter to update the Pakistani people.
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The energy minister urged the public to be patient, saying the cause of the incident was being investigated.
He said work was being done to fire up Pakistan's main Tarbela power station in the north-west, which would lead to a phased restoration of power in the rest of the country.
He told a news conference on Sunday that the Guddu power plant in southern Sindh province developed a fault at 11:41pm on Saturday, which triggered the shutdown of other power plants in seconds.
Later, Zafar Yab, spokesman for the Ministry of Energy, said the Tarbela and Warsak plants, both in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, had come back online and power was being restored to the transmission system.
However, he added that restoration of power to all areas of the country would take some time.
