Pakistan's energy chief defends govt after power outage over

Pakistan’s energy minister is defending the government following a major, daylong power outage that disrupted normal life across the country the previous day

Pakistan’s energy minister on Tuesday defended the government following a major, daylong power outage that disrupted normal life across the country and drew criticism from millions who were left without electricity amid the harsh winter weather.

Monday's blackout engulfed schools, factories and shops, and many in this country of some 220 million were without drinking water as pumps powered by electricity also failed to work. In key businesses and institutions, including main hospitals, military and government facilities, backup generators kicked in.

Power was mostly restored, though some parts of the country still experienced blackouts on Tuesday.

Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir offered no apologies for the collapse of the grid but lauded the nation’s engineers and technicians for their efforts to boot up the system. He also made no reference to the fact that an energy-saving measure by the government had backfired.

Authorities had turned off electricity during low-usage hours on Sunday night to conserve fuel, according to a government energy-saving plan. Efforts to turn power back on early on Monday morning led to a system-wide meltdown.

The minister said an investigation will show what exactly caused the outage, which he blamed on a technical glitch.

“Today, at 5:15 in the morning, the power was fully restored,” Dastgir told reporters in the capital, Islamabad.

Dastgir floated a “remote chance" that the outage was caused by hackers targeting the Pakistani grid's systems and expressed faith a three-member committee set up Monday by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif would get to the bottom of it.

“We will fully cooperate" with the committee, which is expected to complete a preliminary investigation within days, he said. Dastgir also cautioned that some may still face “routine power outages" this week as Pakistan's two nuclear power plants and coal plants have yet to come fully online.

The outage was reminiscent of a massive blackout in January 2021, attributed at the time to a technical fault in Pakistan’s power generation and distribution system. Pakistan gets at least 60% of its electricity from fossil fuels, while nearly 27% of the electricity is generated by hydropower. The contribution of nuclear and solar power to the nation’s grid is about 10%.

Fawad Chaudhry, a senior leader at the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party on Monday criticized the government for mismanaging the country's economy and said the outage was a reflection of the government's incompetence.

Grappling with one of its worst economic crisis in recent years amid dwindling foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan is currently in talks with the International Monetary Fund to soften some conditions on a $6 billion bailout. Sharif's government say the harsh conditions will trigger further inflation hikes.

The IMF released the last crucial tranche of $1.1 billion to Islamabad in August but since then, discussions between the two parties have oscillated due to Pakistan’s reluctance to impose new tax measures.