ISLAMABAD, 25 September 2006 — Pakistan yesterday denied rumors of a coup attempt against President Pervez Musharraf while he is visiting the United States.
Newspaper offices and journalists were inundated with telephone calls and text messages inquiring about the rumors, which coincided with a widespread power cut.
But television programs did not allude to them until Geo Television ran a ticker headline saying Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani had accused “rumor mongers” of exploiting the power cut.
Reuters made checks with senior government as well as military officials, and journalists saw nothing unusual in the capital or the neighboring garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Durrani, who is traveling with Musharraf, told Reuters from New York: “These rumors were sparked by the power breakdown. These are baseless. These rumors spread because televisions were off and telephones were on.” A military official who declined to be named added: “It’s totally rubbish.” Last week Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted as Thai prime minister while attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York — which Musharraf also attended.
Durrani also said Musharraf had had a routine medical checkup in Texas with a Pakistani-American doctor. “He is absolutely all right,” he said. Musharraf underwent routine testing with his doctor during an unannounced visit to a Texas town.
A Pakistani official told the Associated Press on Saturday that Musharraf, 63, visited a friend in Texas who is a cardiologist and suggested he be examined.
“He went through that,” he said. “All systems are go. Everything is fine. He is as fit as a horse.” After leaving the hospital, Musharraf attended a private luncheon in the small town about 170 kilometers northeast of Dallas, The Paris News reported in Saturday’s online edition. In a brief interview with the newspaper, Musharraf said his meeting with Bush was “extremely positive.”
Musharraf is due to launch his autobiography, entitled “In the Line of Fire,” in New York today.
In Pakistan, a technical fault triggered the nationwide blackout yesterday.
“It is a national blackout and we’re trying to find out the fault,” said Shafqat Jalil of Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA).
“There is no chance of sabotage because had it been so, it would have been reported to us by now,” he told Reuters.
Jalil said that electricity supply went down due to an unexplained fault in the transmission system. “Our men have no idea as to where the fault lies,” Jalil said adding that WAPDA authorities are investigating. However, power has been restored to several areas in the capital Islamabad, Jalil said. Millions of homes were without power across the country but no major disruption in communication or other electricity-powered services was reported immediately, he said. “Hospitals and other emergency departments are on generators and backups,” he added.
Another major power outage hit Pakistan in 2001, according to Jalil, who did not explain what was its cause.
Among the cities affected were the capital Islamabad and Lahore. However, most of the nation’s commercial center, Karachi, still had power, witnesses said. He did not give a timeframe for restoration of power in the country of 160 million people.
The outage was attributed to some technical fault in the main transmission line that gets electricity from two major power generating stations at Tarbela and Mangla.
A WAPDA official said power station at the Tarbela Dam generates 500 megawatt of electricity and a fault suspended power supply from there.
Most of the areas in Balochistan, Sindh and the North West Frontier Province plunged into darkness at 1.30 p.m. (GMT 0830). Most of the cities in Punjab were also without electricity. However, as power was gradually restored, calm began to return to the major cities.
It was the worst power crisis in the country’s history and came at a time when the Muslim nation was preparing for Ramadan which begins in Pakistan today.
