Pakistani Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari Wednesday said that the government was making all out efforts to repair the submarine fiber optic cable fault detected near Karachi, the southern port city.

Talking to Pakistan TV, Leghari said the network in the country was likely to be restored during the next three to four days as the fault had been located.

He said disruption in the fiber optic network had affected corporate consumers, call centers and Internet providers.

The state-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited ( PTCL) had launched additional circuits through satellite backup to continue voice mails as well as to facilitate the affected companies, the minister said.

He was of the view that this collapse of telecommunication could have short-term impact but the overall growth of the IT sector in Pakistan would not be affected.

Pakistan's internet and cellphone links to the rest of the world were cut off on June 27 by a fault in a key submarine cable. The breakdown has affected the main fibre-optic link beneath the Arabian Sea, 35 km south of Karachi. Engineers said the fault would likely take two weeks to repair.

Source: Xinhua