[UPDATED] – #Blackout – Electricity goes out in major cities of Pakistan

UPDATE 7: Electricity was partially restored in areas but has gone out again in some. #Loadshedding is now trending on Twitter. Latest statement by the Ministry:

UPDATE 6: Minister of Energy has given another update on the issue:

UPDATE 5: Government statement regarding the matter is given below:

Continued:

UPDATE 4: Following cities are confirmed so far:

Islamabad
Rawalpindi
Faisalabad
Karachi
Lahore
Multan
Gujranwala
Sialkot
Sahiwal
Chakwal
Quetta
Abbotabad
Sargodha
Peshawar
Muzaffarabad
Rahim Yar Khan

UPDATE 3: 80% areas of the country are affected by the outage as per sources.

UPDATE 2: NTDC system has tripped. It will take a while to restore:

UPDATE: DC Islamabad and his teams are in touch with IESCO officials to restore electricity in the capital.

Original article below:

Seems like 2021 just pushed to the second gear as electricity has gone out in all major cities of Pakistan. Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi and Karachi are reporting no electricity for the past 10 minutes. The event started with voltage fluctuations for a few minutes until the lights completely went out.

As of right now, the cause of the blackout is uncertain but it does seem to be nationwide. Almost entire cities are reporting that there is no electricity in various sectors which could either be related to a major power failure or something else more drastic.

If you are in touch with WAPDA officials in your area, please let us know in the comments and we will include your statement in the article.

Here is how Twitter is reacting:

As per this user, power is trapped which has caused the blackout:

Meanwhile this user has a genuine question:

We will update this space with more information.