ISLAMABAD, Aug 20: The communication link between the federal capital and the rest of the country and the outside world remained suspended for almost five hours after a breakdown occurred in one of the telephone exchanges due to short- circuiting.

The breakdown affected important government offices including Pak-Secretariat, Supreme Court, Chief Executive Secretariat, Central Board of Revenue, Election Commission, different foreign missions and newspaper offices, besides a large number of subscribers.

The telephone numbers starting from 220, 227, 287, 282, 920 and 926 in sectors F-6, F-7, G-6 and G-7 remained dead for quite some time. Islamabad-1 exchange has 30,000 telephone lines.

The fault developed due to short-circuiting in a power cable at the Islamabad-1 exchange. The fault disrupted the optical fibre transmission links between the PTCL Islamabad exchange and National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) exchange, PTCL’s transit exchange, international exchange and inter exchange. The non-functioning of the exchanges also disrupted inter exchange, long distance and international traffic.

The local telephone lines remained dead from 12:30 till 5pm, also affecting the internet connectivity. However, the fault did not disturb the mobile phones which remained operational.

The situation triggered all kinds of rumours with people asking questions and making various speculations. A large number of complaints were also registered by the consumers.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) chairman Akhtar Ahmad Bajwa, talking to Dawn, ruled out the possibility of any sabotage in the telephone exchange. He said the disruption was due to a technical fault in one of the power cables. He, however, said the telephone lines of important government offices were also affected, adding that all the green lines remained operative.

He also rejected the reports that fire broke out in the maintenance operational rooms of the Islamabad-1 exchange. He said he had already ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Meanwhile, a PTCL spokesman has announced that the fault has been rectified. The PTCL chairman, accompanied by ITR general-manager Arshad Badr and member operations Zahir Mohammad Khan, immediately arrived at the spot after the breakdown occurred and supervized the rectification work, he said.

The spokesman said the international link was restored at 3pm; NTC traffic and the national traffic, 4pm; the inter- exchange traffic, 5pm. He said all the systems were now fully operative.