Summary The electricity line of at least 220kv from Guddu to Quetta has tripped.
KARACHI (AFP) – Various cities were plunged into darkness after a breakdown of a key power transmission line in southern part of the country early Sunday, another blinding reminder of the country s crippling energy crisis.
According to the details, several districts of Punjab including Gujranwala, Lahore and Rawalpindi have blacked out after the electricity supply was cut off due to a technical fault. The electricity supply of different districts of Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has also been cut off.
The blackout began when a 500 kva transmission line carrying electricity from the private sector Hubco Power Plant to the national grid tripped.
The state minister for water and power apologised for inconvenience and said work was under process to restore electricity.
"On the Prime Minister s directive, we are not to sleep till this problem is resolved," he said .
"Around 80 percent of the country is under the spell of the power breakdown, it will take around eight hours to restore electricity," the official told AFP on conditions of anonymity.
Further, the Lahore airport had also been affected by the power breakdown.
In addition to chronic infrastructure problems, the energy sector is also trapped into a vicious "circular debt" brought on by the dual effect of the government setting low electricity prices and customers failing to pay for it.
State utilities therefore lose money, and cannot pay private power generating companies, which in turn cannot pay the oil and gas suppliers, who cut off the supply.
Moreover, Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif has taken notice of the countrywide electricity break down. He has directed the authorities to fix the technical problem and resume the power supply on emergency basis. However, the electricity supply of Hyderabad, Jamshoro and Dadu has been resumed.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos to deal with a severe petrol shortage at home.
The fuel crisis began last week when Pakistan State Oil was forced to slash imports because banks refused to extend any more credit to the government-owned company, which supplies 80 percent of the country s oil.
Solving country’s energy crisis was a key campaign pledge for Sharif in the run-up to the 2013 general election, and the shortage is heaping fresh pressure on his government.
