Initially, the outage began around 5:45pm when users encountered slow or non-existent accessibility to social media platforms such as X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Netblocks, an independent observer, confirmed that there was ‘national-scale’ disruption to platforms including YouTube, Instagram, X and Facebook.

Later, social media platforms were restored after an hour of the disruption as internet began to return to normal at around 6:50pm.

The restoration was for a brief period as users once again reported connection errors and disruptions.

Meanwhile, the government has not given any statement regarding the disruption, leading to confusion and frustration among citizens.

However, the observer said that the disruption came as PTI was preparing to launch its election fundraising telethon.