Posted on 01/23/23
| News Source: CNN
A nationwide power outage in Pakistan left nearly 220 million people without electricity on Monday, threatening to cause havoc in the South Asian nation already grappling with fuel shortages in the winter months.
The country’s Ministry of Energy said in a statement the country’s National Grid went down at 7.34 a.m local time, “causing a widespread breakdown in the power system,” according to initial reports.
“System maintenance work is progressing rapidly,” the statement added.
A “limited number of grids” in the capital Islamabad and the city of Peshawar have had power restored, the ministry said.
It is unclear how long the outage will last and efforts are underway to restore power to various parts of the country.
In the city of Quetta, in Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan province, the outage has affected all aspects of daily life, including hospitals, markets and households.