'Night mode': Massive power blackout in Pakistan, several cities plunged into darkness

A massive power blackout has been reported in Pakistan before midnight on Saturday, which has plunged several cities into darkness, reported Dawn. In a tweet, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat said the blackout was caused by the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) system tripping.

Islamabad: Several cities and towns in Pakistan plunged into darkness after a huge blackout, according to media reports. The outage was reported shortly before midnight on Sunday almost simultaneously in many cities, the Dawn reported.

Residents of Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Islamabad, Multan, and others faced the blackout, the reports stated.

Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat tweeted that the National Transmission Despatch Company's (NTDC) lines have tripped, causing outage."It will take sometime before everything gets back to normal," he added.

The NTDC teams are working to ascertain reasons behind the sudden fall in frequency of the national distribution system, the Express Tribune quoted a Power Division spokesperson as saying.

• NTDC system tripped. It will take sometime before everything gets back to normal. #blackout #electricity

  — Office of Deputy Commissioner Islamabad (@dcislamabad) January 9, 2021 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  NTDC system tripped. It will take sometime before everything gets back to normal. #blackout #electricity

  — Office of Deputy Commissioner Islamabad (@dcislamabad) January 9, 2021

  ">

  NTDC system tripped. It will take sometime before everything gets back to normal. #blackout #electricity

  — Office of Deputy Commissioner Islamabad (@dcislamabad) January 9, 2021

Power Minister Omar Ayub tweeted the "frequency in the power distribution system suddenly dropped from 50 to 0 which caused the blackout".

• Plz save your energy and water. No need to panic. Some technical fault in the Transmission system. Might take a couple of hours to normalize. Don't believe in conspiracies. We are on duty to keep the city safe @DigIslamabad @rmwaq

  — Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat (@hamzashafqaat) January 9, 2021 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  Plz save your energy and water. No need to panic. Some technical fault in the Transmission system. Might take a couple of hours to normalize. Don't believe in conspiracies. We are on duty to keep the city safe @DigIslamabad @rmwaq

  — Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat (@hamzashafqaat) January 9, 2021

  ">

  Plz save your energy and water. No need to panic. Some technical fault in the Transmission system. Might take a couple of hours to normalize. Don't believe in conspiracies. We are on duty to keep the city safe @DigIslamabad @rmwaq

  — Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat (@hamzashafqaat) January 9, 2021

"We are trying to ascertain what caused the drop in frequency, Ayub said, appealing to people to maintain restraint.

Soon after the breakdown, the term #blackout became a top trend on Twitter with over 52,800 tweets till 2:18 am.

"So finally Pakistan showed unity in something that sounds good. 2021 game strong," said a Twitter user. Another user on Twitter commented: "Finally Imran khan introduces Night mode in Naya Pakistan."

"Everyone in Pakistan on Twitter will be an electrical engineer till morning," said another Twitterati.

With inputs from agencies