Panic In Pakistan As Power Outage Nationwide Leaves Cities, Towns In Total Darkness
Pakistan Power Minister Omar Ayub tweeted that the “frequency in the power distribution system suddenly dropped from 50 to 0 causing the blackout” to trigger. He appealed to people to maintain restraint as the authorities tried to ascertain the real cause of the drop in frequency
About 200 Million people have been left without electricity in Pakistan in what appears to be a nationwide power outage. The cause of the blackout has not been known yet, but officials claim residents and the entire nation has been in panic.
Major cities and towns were plunged into darkness after a huge blackout shortly before midnight on Sunday. According to media reports the outage was reported almost simultaneously in many cities as residents of Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Islamabad, Multan, and others were left with no electricity.
Pakistan Power Minister Omar Ayub tweeted that the “frequency in the power distribution system suddenly dropped from 50 to 0 causing the blackout” to trigger. He appealed to people to maintain restraint as the authorities tried to ascertain the real cause of the drop in frequency. The situation has created an avenue for #blackout trending on Twitter with Pakistani residents venting their anger and frustrations over the situation.
Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat informed that the National Transmission Despatch Company’s (NTDC) lines have tripped, causing the outage. “It will take some time before everything gets back to normal,” he tweeted.
The problem was noticed at about at 11:45 p.m. on Saturday when a major power outage happened in all Pakistani major cities, including Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, and Rawalpindi. Officials said there was no doubt that the power cut was nationwide.
Parliamentarian Senator Faisal Javed Khan speaking on a first-hand information said the blackout had bee, “countrywide” and was caused by a sudden power frequency drop as the power transmission system record had shown.
“We are told that the technical fault will be restored shortly, Insha’Allah,” he hoped.
According to another source close to the Ministry of Energy, the frequency drop resulted from a “fault” at Guddu at 11:41 p.m: “Power plants have been shut down due to falling frequencies,” the ministry said.
Last year June, the city of Karachi was in temporary darkness, gripped by panic as it was trending on the media started claiming that fighter jets belonging to the Indian Air Force (IAF) were seen flying close to Karachi within the area of India/ Pakistani border.
As the jet created a panic that made the authority blackened Karachi in a temporary black-out to ascertain the mission of the aircraft, accusing fingers were pointed at India over the unexpected encroachment.
It was later revealed that the authority had taken a precautionary measure blackening the city following citizens from Karachi complaining of fighter jets hovering over the city. A journalist Wajhat Kazmi had claimed that Pakistani jets were patrolling over the city and hoped that the situation wasn’t serious, but the netizens started a misconception that India aircraft had invaded. The government later denied any Indian invasion as it was later discovered the Pakistani Airforce had been misunderstood for the Indian plane and the issue fizzled out
It was later said that Pakistani authorities mistook PAF aircrafts for IAF aircrafts, and caused the complete blackout in the city with many bloggers reporting later that it was a Pakistani Airforce plane violating the Indian airspace with a hung-on India flag on the aircraft
An hours-long blackout hit Pakistan back in January 2015, leaving up to 80 percent of the country without power. If Saturday’s blackout is confirmed to be nationwide, it would be one of the biggest in world history.
