SINCE technology dictates and defines everyday life so comprehensively a suspension of the routine is all the more paralysing.

Following a blaze at a PTCL installation on Sunday, Lahore and some other parts of Punjab found themselves cut off from the world without the technology they had come to take for granted. Thousands of telephones, landlines and some operations by mobile phone companies linked to PTCL went dead and internet services were disrupted.

Consequently, work was severely curtailed in many areas, prominent among them banks, educational institutions, the media industry and IT-related businesses.

The fire incident took place just as the week leading up to Eidul Azha was about to get under way. This is the season when everyone is in a hurry to complete assignments before settling down to enjoy the holiday.

The disruption caused by PTCL added an element of panic to the pre-Eid rush and the flurry of explanations and promises of early resumption of normal operations put forward by the affected organisations did little to ease concerns.

For many who found themselves constrained by the unexpected suspension of communications, the situation was not without irony. How come something that was there to speed up their work was not capable of quickly fixing a fault in its own system?

Questions were raised about the precautions taken at the sensitive premises hit by the fire, and on Monday, there were reports that the city district government of Lahore was looking at forensic evidence to ascertain the cause.

However, even if it was an accident that had taken place despite the best possible measures to prevent one, consumers were justifiably shocked and puzzled at the amount of time it took to restore the system to even a minimum level of functionality. Though some urgent effort was put in to resolve the issues and a few connections were restored faster than the others, the calls are for greater security of the system and a brisker response in case of an emergency.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014