Internet 'Collapse', Massive Blackout Across Pakistan After National Grid Breakdown, Govt Urges Calm
Pakistan was hit by a massive power blackout early
Sunday, officials said, with much of the country, including all major cities,
plunged into darkness.
The electricity distribution system in the nation of
more than 210 million people is a complex -- and delicate -- web, and a problem
in one section of the grid can lead to cascading breakdowns countrywide.
The latest blackout was caused by a fault in
southern Pakistan at 11:41 pm local time on Saturday, power minister Omar Ayub
Khan tweeted, citing preliminary reports.
"The fault tripped the transmission system of
the country... leading to the shutdown of power plants," Khan said
The blackout hit all of Pakistan's major cities,
including the capital Islamabad, economic hub Karachi and the second-largest
city Lahore.
The Ministry of Energy said that power had been restored in some parts of the country, and that teams were still working on restoring supply completely in the early hours of Sunday.
Netblocks, which monitors internet outages said
internet connectivity in the country "collapsed" as a result of the
outage.
Connectivity was at "62 percent of ordinary
levels," it said in a tweet.
In 2015 an apparent rebel attack on a key power line
plunged around 80 percent of Pakistan into darkness.
That blackout, one of the worst in Pakistan's
history, caused electricity to be cut in major cities nationwide, including the
capital Islamabad, and even affected one of the country's international
airports.
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