MM News

ISLAMABAD: Amid reports of another breakdown in the name of load management in Karachi, Lahore and other parts of the country, Federal Minister Khurram Dastagir appeared on media Tuesday morning to claim that there are 1112 gird stations across the country which stand ‘fully restored’.

Addressing a news conference, a day after country faced worst power breakdown in several years, the federal minister said that PM Shehbaz Sharif had formed a committee to probe the cause of the breakdown, adding that it was also examining the possibility of external involvement in the power outage crisis (by using internet etc.). He says that although there is less likelihood but still we are looking into this as well.

خدشہ ہے کہ بجلی کے بریک ڈاؤن کے پیچھے ہیکرز کا ہاتھ ہے۔ وزیر توانائی خرم دستگیر#ElectricityShutdown #Poweroutage #KhurramDastagir #EnergyMinister #MMNews pic.twitter.com/Wxrpl2e7oB

— MM News (@mmnewsdottv) January 24, 2023

More than 24 hours after the country was hit by the power outage, the federal minister said the cause of the breakdown was still not known, however, there was a ‘technical fault’ reported between Tarbela and Mangla. He further said that the transmission system across the country was completely safe.

He claimed that electric supply stood fully restored in the country at 5:15 this morning.

He went on claiming that power supply to the flood affected areas in the country had already been restored yesterday.

Khurram Dastagir, however, warned that there would be ‘some load shedding’ as still up to 48 hours were needed to fully restore coal-based plants as well as nuclear power plants based in Karachi and Chashma.

He said yesterday one unit of each Sahiwal and Engro Coal Power plant has also started work. There would be a shortage of electricity for the next 48 hours and limited power load-shedding would be carried out, he added.

However, he made it clear that industrial consumers would be exempted from the power load-shedding as per the policy of the incumbent government.

The federal minister said that the country had plenty of fuel to energize its power plants, but still three to four days were needed to fully operationalize the nuclear plants.

Towards the end of his presser, Khurram Dastagir blamed previous government (led by Imran Khan) and its ‘incompetence and criminal negligence’ that resulted in yesterday’s power breakdown, adding that there had been no investment made in the power sector between 2018 to 2022.