Power supply in Pakistan being restored after hours of blackout

Residents took to Twitter to voice their anger at the situation, while others offered good wishes for those being treated in hospitals.

Power supply in Pakistan is being restored in phases after the country witnessed one of its worst blackouts around midnight, leaving millions of citizens in darkness.

Rawalpindi : People are silhouetted on vehicles headlights on a dark street during widespread power outages in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021. Pakistan's national power grid experienced a major breakdown late night on Saturday, leaving millions of people in darkness, local media reported. AP/PTI(AP01_10_2021_000019B) (AP)

As of Sunday afternoon, supplies were beginning to resume in the cities, power minister Omar Ayub Khan said on Twitter. The nationwide outage was triggered by a snag at the Guddu power plant, the country’s largest, causing the national grid to collapse, according to Khan.

Residents took to Twitter to voice their anger at the situation, while others offered good wishes for those being treated in hospitals.

“Meanwhile, please pray for all those who are currently on ventilators,” a resident tweeted. “I hope every hospital in Pakistan has adequate power supply during this time.”

The incident points to a need to overhaul the country’s power transmission system to provide reliable electricity.

“It’s not the first time this has happened; the country’s power infrastructure is fragile,” Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South Asia at the Washington-based Wilson Center said on Twitter. “In the past, separatist attacks have been blamed for such outages. That doesn’t appear to be the case this time.”