Pakistan suspends power plant staff after nationwide blackout

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Pakistan suspends power plant staff after nationwide blackout (Image tweeted by @Reuters)
Pakistan suspends power plant staff after nationwide blackout (Image tweeted by @Reuters)

Islamabad : Seven staff members of Pakistan's biggest power plant have been suspended after the nation dealt with complete blackout for around 18 hours.

The power outage was seen in almost all major cities of the nation, including the capital Islamabad, economic hub Karachi and the second-largest city Lahore.

The employees at Guddu thermal power plant in Sindh province were suspended "on account of the negligence of duty", according to the Central Power Generation Company, which operates the facility.

The plant has been operational since 1980 and is one of the biggest plants that generates power from furnace oil and natural gas.

Those who have been suspended include a managed and six junior employees.

The blackout, which started shortly before midnight on Saturday, was caused by an engineering fault which tripped the system and caused power plants across the country to shut down.

The outage marked Pakistan's second major power breakdown in less than three years.

In May 2018, power was partially disrupted for more than nine hours, while in 2015 an apparent rebel attack on a key supply line plunged around 80 percent of the country into darkness.

(Image)