Pakistan to probe foreign intervention in power breakdown

Islamabad : Pakistan’s Minister for Energy, Khurram Dastgir, said on Tuesday that the authorities have not been able to find out the reason behind the fault that caused countrywide power breakdown, adding that the federal government will also probe the possibility of “foreign intervention” in this, media reports said.

A major power breakdown caused by “frequency variation” in the transmission system hit large areas of the country at around 7:30 a.m. on Monday. Electricity wasn’t fully restored till late at night, bringing life to a standstill in Pakistan as several cities were left without electricity, The News reported.

“There are concerns, and it has to be investigated if a foreign intervention was made via hacking of our power distribution system,” Dastagir said in a press conference on Tuesday, as the restoration work continued past 24 hours after the country plunged into darkness.

The minister said that the “possibility of foreign intervention through the internet is low”, however, the matter will be probed as there have been multiple incidents recently, The News reported.

Dastgir said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has formed a three-member inquiry committee which will be headed by Minister of State for Petroleum, Musadik Malik.

He said there will be shortage of electricity and the citizens will face power cuts in the next 48 hours, adding that the system will be completely restored by Thursday.

Dastgir also said that National Transmission and Despatch Company’s (NTDC) 1,112 grid stations across Pakistan have been restored.