Social media platforms were down in Pakistan on Saturday as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was holding its second online power show ahead of the Election 2024, an independent observer said.

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

Later, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) claimed that the internet service was disrupted due to a technical fault.

In post on X at 9:59pm, the authority said that the internet services were fully restored across the country.

The outage had begun around 6:40pm when users decried slow or non-existent accessibility to social media platforms such as X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

“The incident comes as persecuted opposition leader Imran Khan’s political party, PTI, launches its second virtual gathering,” the observer said in a post on X.

It is pertinent to mention that the PTI announced to hold its second online virtual jalsa today (Saturday) at 7:00pm.

The online power show was set to be aired on YouTube, X, Facebook and Instagram.