Power being restored after most of Pakistan plunged into darkness
- Pakistan’s energy ministry took to Twitter to urge people to remain calm while authorities worked to restore power
- The power cut is one of the worst the country has experienced. In 2015, around 80 per cent of the country lost power after a major transmission line broke down
Hours after the late Saturday outage, Energy Minister Omar Ayub said on Twitter that power was being restored in phases, starting with Islamabad. He said later on Sunday that power had been restored to much of the country.
The blackout was initially reported on social media by residents of major urban centres, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Multan. The minister and his spokesman then took to Twitter to update the country.
Ayub urged people to be patient. He said the cause of the power outage was being investigated and work was being done to fire up Pakistan’s main Tarbela power station in the northwest, which would lead to a restoration of power in the rest of the country in phases.
Ayub said in a news conference on Sunday that the Guddu power plant in southern Sindh province developed a fault at 11.41pm that triggered the shutdown of other power plants in seconds.
