Millions of Pakistanis were left without power early on Monday as a result of a failure in the country’s national grid.
All major cities, including the largest, Karachi, the capital, Islamabad, Lahore, and Peshawar, were without power.
According to Pakistan’s power minister Khurrum Dastagir, a “frequency variation” caused the grid breakdown in the south of the country.
In many places, the restoration of electricity was still ongoing when night fell.
Power outages are a common occurrence in Pakistan, which are attributed to poor management and a lack of infrastructure investment. It took hours to restore the previous significant blackout in October.
According to the energy ministry, the grid “had a loss of frequency, that produced a catastrophic breakdown” at around 07:30 local time (02:30 GMT).