ISLAMABAD; Federal IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja confirmed on Monday that a submarine cable cut near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is behind the ongoing internet disruptions across Pakistan. She said assessments were still underway to determine the scale of the damage.
In a statement, the minister said she was in close contact with Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) officials regarding the situation. “It is true that slow internet is affecting businesses,” she acknowledged, stressing that technical evaluations were being carried out.
Her remarks followed PTCL’s earlier announcement that cuts in submarine internet cables in Saudi waters could affect connectivity in Pakistan, particularly during peak hours. The company explained that the disruption had reduced bandwidth capacity on two major international cable systems—SMW4 and IMEWE—which link Pakistan to the global internet.
PTCL added that international partners were prioritising repairs to the damaged cables, while local teams had arranged alternative bandwidth to cushion the impact. However, the IT minister clarified that repair agencies had yet to provide a time frame for full restoration. “The exact nature of the cable damage is under review,” she noted.
The outage has not been limited to Pakistan. Users in the UAE and other Gulf states also reported slower internet speeds following the Red Sea disruption. Experts believe that nearly 70 percent of such incidents are caused by ship anchors. The Red Sea is regarded as a vital global communications corridor, where technical repairs are both challenging and time-consuming.
This is not the first disruption of its kind. In March 2024, three submarine cables in the same region were damaged, triggering widespread slowdowns in internet and cloud services across multiple countries.
