7 officials suspended for negligence after massive power failure in Pakistan
Jan 10, 2021
Islamabad [Pakistan], January 11 : Pakistan's Central Power Generation Company on Sunday suspended seven officials of Guddu Thermal Power Station on account of negligence during their duties which caused a massive power failure that plunged several cities of the country in darkness, reported Daily Pakistan.
"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.
This development comes after the federal government constituted a committee to investigate the sudden electricity failure that hit the country on late Saturday night.
Daily Pakistan reported that the suspended officials are Additional 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.
On Saturday night, Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, and other cities were plunged into darkness, leaving the masses in shock and panic due to the power failure. The power supply has now been restored in parts of Pakistan.
According to Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan power has been restored at all Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) stations. It was resumed in Gujarat and Mandi Bahauddin districts.
Power was also restored at the 500kv Rawat-Naukhar circuit and the 500kv Tarberla-Rawat circuit as well.
Omar Ayub in his Twitter post said that 132kv grid stations around Lahore have been energised including Shadman, Qartaba, Mc Leod Road, Gulshan Ravi, Fort, Saidpur, Shamke, Sagihan, Ravi, Bund Road, Badami Bagh, Sabzar, Sheikhupura, Orient, and Sapphire.
Earlier, in a tweet, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat said the blackout was caused by the tripping of the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) system.
Later, Omar Ayub explained that the power breakdown occurred when the frequency in the national power distribution system (NTDC) suddenly fell from 50 to zero.
Following the blackout, citizens took to social media to vent their ire on the situation and mocked Prime Minister Imran Khan for his inability to handle the crises Pakistan is going through.
