Pakistan Hit By One Of The Worst Power Outages In Decades

Several cities in Pakistan were restored with Electricity after a major grid failure overnight, which left major portion of the country in the dark.

The blackout began two days ago after a technical fault occurred in the South western Baluchistan province. The major cities, which were affected by power failure, were Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Rawalpindi. Power cut is nothing new in Pakistan, but nationwide blackout is a rare case.

The Government of Pakistan has ordered an inquiry in the power outage case. The authorities are keen to establish that it was a technical fault and not sabotage, which left the nation into dark for this long.

This all began with the technical failure at a privately run 1,200 megawatt power plant operated by Hub Power Co (HUBC), which is Pakistan’s second biggest generator. The other small power plants at Tarbela and Mangla dams failed, because they were not able to handle the burden of over demand.

“Power has been restored in 80 percent of the country while the rest will see electricity before noon today,” Water and Power Secretary Rai Sikandar said in a statement today. “It’s too early to speculate why that happened and we will inform the people after a detailed investigation.”

Restoration of power started on Monday with electricity supply resuming in some parts of Karachi and Quetta as well as in other areas of the country.

On Sunday night, the power failure took everyone by surprise amid fear of any terrorist attack or military coup, according to a correspondent from BBC.

At present total demand of electricity in Pakistan accounts for 14,400 megawatts, while the country fulfills the demand of 11,405 megawatts, according to the information stated in the website of power ministry of Pakistan. There have been protests on the streets, and factories have been closed against the power cut, which has increased the pressure on Government, led by President Asif Ali Zardari ahead of elections, which are due to be held in early May.

According to reports, this kind of nationwide power cut was the third in Pakistan in the last decade.

In a press conference, secretary of Power and Water said that, 5000 MW of electricity has been restored in the system, which has enabled the restoration of electricity supply across Pakistan.

Another Pakistani official Masood Akhtar said that power was restored in most areas of the cities in Pakistan by mid-morning and the few areas, which are still in dark, will get back the power in few hours.

See how tweeps responded to the major #blackout in #Pakistan:

Not connected but there was a target operation held in #Karachi during the #Blackout by Rangers, Rapid Response Force & Anti-Terrorist Squad

— Mansoor Ali Khan (@MansoorGeoNews) February 25, 2013

Has power been restored in any part of the ciity #Karachi? Updates from other cities?

— Sidra Iqbal (@SidraIqbal) February 25, 2013

Thankyou #Blackout , Oscars 2013 were missed.

— Gumnaam (@ChaiCharsi) February 25, 2013

The power has been restored finally in #karachi

— Sheeraz Raza (@SheerazRaza) February 25, 2013

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