LAHORE, Sept 26: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) on Tuesday said that a surge in a 500-kilovolt circuit at Ghazi Barotha caused the country-wide breakdown on Sunday.

According to the briefing by the authority to Water and Power Minister Liaquat Jatoi, the surge caused a bloackage in the transmission of a load amounting to 4,700 megawatts from Tarbela and Ghazi Barotha, resulting in tripping of the entire system.

The minister later told journalists that there were no signs of sabotage and that it was purely a technical fault.

He said the ministry had formed an independent inquiry committee to determine the breakdown’s causes and recommend remedial measures.

During the breakdown, Prime Minster Shaukat Aziz monitored the situation, he said.

Wapda chairman Tariq Hamid said that the authority had 13,500MW of electricity and insisted that there was no need to resort load-shedding.