ISLAMABAD: The country suffered a major power breakdown on Thursday, leaving the capital Islamabad and countless other areas in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) without electricity for hours.

An official from the ministry of water and power told media that a fault in the 500kv transmission line at the Guddu power plant led to the shutting down of Mangla, Tarbela and Ghazi Barotha power stations, leaving a major part of the country without power.

The sudden power failure left the National Assembly building in the dark during an ongoing session while a number of other official buildings were also left without electricity.

This is the second major breakdown of the power system within the past week.

On Friday, several cities, towns and villages in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan had suffered from power failure when a 500kv transmission line near Muzaffargarh tripped.

This had led to shutting down of about 15 power plants one after the other because of automatic safety systems and most parts of the country were “de-energised”, an official had told media.

Pakistan’s electricity distribution system is a complex – and delicate – web and a major fault at one section often leads to chain reactions and breakdowns of power generation and transmission.