Pakistan's Power Blackout: Power Restored In Parts Of Islamabad, Lahore While Some Cities Still Under Darkness

Power was gradually being restored to major cities across Pakistan on January 10 after it was hit by a massive electricity blackout. Electricity distribution system in the nation of more than 210 million people is a complex & delicate web, and a problem in one section of the grid can lead to cascading breakdowns countrywide. Latest blackout was caused by "an engineering fault" in southern Pakistan at 11:41 pm local time on January 9(1841 GMT), which tripped the system & caused power plants to shut down, power minister Omar Ayub Khan told a press conference in Islamabad. Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat tweeted that the National Transmission Despatch Company's lines have tripped, causing outage.

The blackout had plunged all of Pakistan's major cities into darkness, including the capital Islamabad, economic hub Karachi & the second-largest city Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan. This was Pakistan's second major power breakdown in less than three years. In May 2018, power supply was partially disrupted for more than nine hours. In 2015, an apparent rebel attack on a key power line plunged around 80 percent of Pakistan into darkness.