-Electricity restored across country in quick response
-Info Minister blames Ex rulers for blackout
-Technical fault occurred at the Guddu power plant: Energy Minister
By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Sunday formed a committee to probe into the massive power blackout that had hit parts of the country on late Saturday night.
According to a notification issued here, the Central Power Generation Company has suspended seven officials of Guddu Thermal Power Station on account of the negligence of duty which caused power failure across the country.
“Seven officials working under Plant Manager-III are hereby laced under suspension with immediate effect and until further orders, on account of the negligence of duty which caused power failure found in view of a preliminary inquiry,” reads the notification issued by Central Power Generation Company Limited.
The employees suspended in light of preliminary inquiry include Adl. Plant Manager Sohail Ahmed, Junior Engineer Deedar Channa, Foreman Ali Hassan Golo, Ayyaz Hussain Dahar Operator, Saeed Ahmed Operator, Attendants Siraj Ahmed Memom and Ilyas Ahmed.
Several parts of the country, including Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore, suffered a mass breakdown on late Saturday night.
Electricity restored: The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) today announced that the power supply was restored across the country after a nation-wide outage owing to a technical fault.
“We have restored electricity supply to all 500KV, 220KV grid stations, and all transmission lines,” the spokesman of the NTDC said. He further said that the supply to the 500 KV Jamshoro grid and NKI Karachi was also restored.
Meanwhile, the power division spokesman also said that the electricity supply from Guddu power station to DG Khan, Muzaffargarh and Rahim Yar Khan was also restored.
Earlier in the day, Federal Energy Minister Omar Ayub said that a technical fault occurred at the Guddu power plant at 11:41 pm last night, due to which frequency in the national grid went down from 50 to zero in a matter of seconds, plunging most parts of the country into darkness.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Senator Shibli Faraz on Sunday has said that previous governments did not do any work to improve the power transmission system.
Moreover, holding a press conference along with Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan, Shibli Faraz claimed that many countries face difficulties due to lack of advanced electricity transmission system.
The incumbent government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is taking steps for upgradation of transmission system for better supply of the electricity, she added.
Shibli Faraz further highlighted that a comprehensive plan to upgrade transmission system is under process and to strict measure to ensure efficient power generation will soon taken.
