Islamabad , January 27 (ANI): In the past nine years, Pakistan has faced eight major power outages and the latest major power outage on January 23 serves as a warning of the dystopian future that awaits Islamabad, reported Asian Lite International.
The Ministry of Energy confirmed that the system frequency of the national power grid “went down” at 0700 hours on January 23 morning and caused a “widespread” breakdown in the power system across the country.
This incident was not an isolated one, as the country has been facing power breakdowns frequently. In fact, this outage occurred only three months after another major power breakdown in October 2022.
Secretary General of the All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association Shahid Sattar estimated losses of USD 70 million to the sector, the country’s largest exporter and crucial booster of foreign exchange reserves.
Earlier this month, the Pakistan government issued a desperate directive to all the malls and markets in the country to shut by 2200 hours under a new “energy-saving plan,” where it expected to save nearly PKR 62 billion this year.
The recent outage exposes the country’s breakdown in energy governance and questions the government’s plan for the future of energy production in Pakistan, reported Asian Lite International.
The root cause of the energy problem lies in the incompetence of the government authorities, who have failed to address the underlying infrastructure issues of the power sector.
As a result, the power sector is reportedly neck-deep in debt and does not have enough resources to improve its transmission infrastructure.
The power system in Pakistan has long been a source of frustration and difficulty for its citizens. The latest power outage, which left millions without electricity, is just the latest example of a chronic problem that has plagued the country for years.
On January 23, the State Bank of Pakistan Governor Jameel Ahmad predicted that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the current fiscal year (2022-23) will remain below 2 per cent.
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