Pakistan power restored after second major breakdown in months..Great Loss

 Pakistan power restored after second major breakdown in months..Great Loss

Reuters, ISLAMABAD, January 24 - The largest power outage in months, according to Pakistan's energy minister, was caused by a lack of network investment. He claimed that the aid-dependent country has "learned lessons" from the failure that left millions of people without electricity.

The electrical network requires urgent modernization, just like much of the country's infrastructure, but funding has been spotty as Pakistan lurched from one IMF bailout to the next. It was the second significant breakdown since October when the outage started on Monday morning.

Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir told reporters that the nation of roughly 220 million people had entirely recovered power, saying that "we learned lessons from yesterday that we need to invest in the distribution infrastructure."

"The previous government hasn't made any effort in improving these systems," he continued.

In the past two decades, Pakistan has received assistance from the International Monetary Fund five times. However, due to disagreements with the government over a programme review that was supposed to be finished in November, its most recent bailout payment is still in limbo.

Although Pakistan has adequate installed power capacity to fulfil demand, the country cannot afford to invest in infrastructure and power lines since the industry is so indebted. Transmission and distribution, according to analysts, are the weakest links.

China has made an unspecified investment in its electricity industry as part of a $60 billion infrastructure programme that supports its "Belt and Road" ambition.

Dastgir stated that the ministry was undertaking a safety examination of the entire network but that the cause of the outage was not yet established. Within the following 36 months, "the government aims to construct more power distribution lines," he continued.

 Nearly every day, millions of Pakistanis experience partial blackouts, including planned "load shedding" power outages intended to conserve electricity.

Many people cope with these disruptions, purchasing solar panels and generators to produce their own electricity, but the ageing infrastructure also takes a toll. Sara Khan, the administrator of a girls' school in Jacobabad, a southern city that frequently experiences power outages lasting up to 18 hours per day, said, "Without electricity, we can't do anything." "The people are having just too many problems as a result of the power outages."

Reporting by Asif Shahazad in Islamabad; writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Miral Fahmy; editing by Simon Cameron-Moore; additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; and Charlotte Greenfield in Kabul.

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