The blackout began around 07:30 local time (02:30 GMT) on Monday, affecting almost the entire country and its largest cities.

The failure is linked to a cost reduction measure taken in the context of an economic crisis.

Power was gradually restored by zones and was again available across the country around 5:15 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan announced.

But load shedding will be frequent over the next 48 hours, the time to restart all nuclear and coal power plants, he warned.

"The industry will be exempted from this load shedding," he said at a press conference in Islamabad.

Electricity returned overnight in major urban centers, including the megacities of Karachi and Lahore

The secretary general of the Association of Textile Factories, Shahid Sattar, estimated the losses in this essential sector, which accounts for around 60% of Pakistani exports, at 70 million dollars (64 million euros).

Nearly 90% of the country's textile factories had to close on Monday due to the power cut, he told AFP.

“Every time there is a power outage, the plant has to be restarted from scratch, which takes a lot of time and energy,” he explained.

"Huge losses"

"We can't pick up where we left off. All those yarns that are being dyed or treated, etc., we can't reuse them again. It causes huge losses."

Pakistan's economy is already faltering with rampant inflation, a plummeting national currency - the rupee - and low foreign exchange reserves.

Such a power outage only increases the pressure on small businesses.

People warm themselves in front of a fire on January 23, 2023 in Muzaffarabad, during a massive blackout that affected most of Pakistan.

© Sajjad QAYYUM / AFP/Archives

The country's electricity system is a complex and fragile network where malfunctions can quickly multiply, and power cuts are a recurring problem in Pakistan.

According to Mr. Khan, the outage was caused by a variation in the electrical frequency on the national grid, when power generation units restarted on Monday morning and were temporarily switched off at night in winter to save fuel.

Most hospitals, industries and government institutions are equipped with generators.

But households and small businesses often do not have the means to afford such equipment.

In Karachi, hundreds of water pumps failed during the power cut, adding to the difficulties of the already fragile water supply sector in Pakistan's largest city, with 15 millions of inhabitants.

"Sitting there, doing nothing"

In Rawalpindi, a neighboring town of Islamabad, Muhammad Iftikhar Sheikh, a 71-year-old appliance salesman, lamented not being able to test his appliances in front of customers.

“Customers never buy without trying first,” he cursed.

"We're all sitting there, doing nothing."

In schools, classes have often taken place in the dark, for those without battery lighting.

In Karachi (south), where temperatures were higher, a trader told AFP that he feared that his entire stock of dairy products would be lost due to lack of refrigeration.

And Khurrum Khan, a 39-year-old printer, saw the orders piling up, without being able to fulfill them.

High voltage lines on January 23, 2023 in Rawalpindi, during a gigantic blackout that affected most of Pakistan.

© Aamir QURESHI / AFP/Archives

Electricity problems are "a permanent curse that our governments have failed to get rid of", he regretted.

Mobile phone services were also disrupted due to the outage, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority tweeted.

A similar outage in January 2021 plunged most of the country into blackout, after a technical malfunction in the south triggered a chain reaction.

© 2023 AFP