Pakistan’s energy chief defends govt after power outage over

By MUNIR AHMED
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s energy minister is defending the government following a major, daylong power outage that disrupted normal life across the country the previous day. The collapse of the power grid on Monday drew criticism from millions of people who remained without electricity for up to 24 hours amid the harsh winter weather. Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir on Tuesday offered no apologies but lauded the nation’s engineers and technicians for their efforts to boot up the grid. He made no reference to the fact that an energy-saving measure by the government had backfired. Authorities had turned off electricity on Sunday night to conserve fuel and efforts to turn it back on led to a system-wide meltdown.