ISLAMABAD (AP) – Most of Pakistan was left without power on Monday as a government energy-saving measure backfired. The outage spread panic and raised questions about how the strapped government is handling the country’s economic crisis.
It all started when power was shut off overnight during off-peak hours to save fuel across the country, officials said, so technicians couldn’t boot up the system all at once after dawn. The outage was reminiscent of a massive power outage in January 2021, which was then attributed to a technical failure in Pakistan’s power generation and distribution system.
Many major cities, including the capital Islamabad, and remote towns and villages across Pakistan were without power for more than 12 hours. As the blackout lasted through Monday evening, authorities deployed additional police officers to markets across the country to ensure security.
Officials announced late Monday that power was restored in many cities 15 hours after the blackout was reported.
Earlier, the nationwide blackout had left many in this country of about 220 million people without drinking water because electric pumps didn’t work. Schools, hospitals, factories and businesses were without power amid the harsh winter weather.
Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir told local media that engineers were working to restore power across the country and was trying to reassure the nation that power would be fully restored within the next 12 hours.
According to the minister, power consumption typically drops overnight during winter – in contrast to the summer months when Pakistanis resort to air conditioning to recover from the heat.
“As an economic measure, we temporarily shut down our power generation systems,” Dastgir said on Sunday evening. As engineers attempted to turn the systems back on, a “voltage surge” was observed, which “forced engineers to shut down the power grid,” one station at a time.
Dastgir insisted the outage did not represent a major crisis and that power would be restored in phases. Back-up generators turned on in many places and in key businesses and institutions, including hospitals, military and government facilities.
Late Monday afternoon, Dastgir told reporters at another news conference that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif had ordered an investigation into the blackout.
“We hope that power will be fully restored tonight,” he said.
Before midnight, power was restored in Karachi, the country’s largest city and economic hub, and many other major cities including Rawalpindi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province.
In Lahore, a closure notice was posted at Orange Line metro stations, with railway workers guarding the sites and trains parked on the tracks. It was not known when the subway system would be restored.
Imran Rana, a spokesman for Karachi’s power company, said the government’s priority is to power strategic facilities like hospitals and airports first.
Internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org said network data showed a significant drop in Internet access in Pakistan attributed to the power outage. Metrics showed connectivity was at 60% of normal levels as many users struggled to get online on Monday.
Pakistan gets at least 60% of its electricity from fossil fuels, while almost 27% of its electricity is generated by hydroelectric power. The contribution of nuclear and solar energy to the country’s power grid is about 10%.
With foreign exchange reserves dwindling, Pakistan is struggling with one of the country’s worst economic crises in recent years. This has forced the government to close malls and markets until 8:30 p.m. to save energy.
Talks are underway with the International Monetary Fund to ease some terms on Pakistan’s $6 billion bailout package, which the government believes will trigger further increases in inflation. In August, the IMF released the last important tranche of $1.1 billion to Islamabad.
Since then, talks between the two parties have oscillated due to Pakistan’s reluctance to introduce new tax measures.
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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.