Pakistan power outage: Mass outage cuts power to most of Pakistan 

A massive power cut swept Pakistan Monday morning, following a breakdown in its national electricity grid, the energy ministry said.

Power was out in all the country’s major cities, including the biggest city Karachi, the capital Islamabad as well as Lahore and Peshawar. 

The power minister said the grid failure followed a “frequency variation” in southern Pakistan. 

He insisted this was “not a major crisis” and power would be back soon. 

In a statement, Power minister Khurrum Dastagir said that at about 07:30 local time, the grid “experienced a loss of frequency, that caused a major breakdown”, adding that “swift work” was taking place to revive the system.

He told Geo TV that some grids in Pakistan had already been restored and power would be fully restored within 12 hours. 

“In winter, the demand for electricity reduces nationwide, hence, as an economic measure, we temporarily close down our power generation systems at night,” he said.

When they were turned on in the morning, “frequency variation and voltage fluctuation” were observed in southern Pakistan “somewhere between Dadu and Jamshoro” and subsequently “power generating units shut down one by one”, he told the TV channel.

Pakistan power outage

Earlier this month the government had told shopping centres and markets to close early every day to save money on power. 

Pakistan’s reserves of foreign currency have been falling and the country generates most of its power using imported fossil fuels.

Global energy prices have skyrocketed, putting even more pressure on the country’s already shrinking finances.