Pakistan's Internet system was restored Friday after 12 days of interruption caused by a fault in the undersea optic fiber that connects the country with the rest of the world, a senior official said.

"The SEA-ME-WE-3 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe) cable which developed a fault on June 27 was restored today," President of the state-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited (PTCL) Junaid Khan said at a press conference in Islamabad.

He said all the procedures necessary for rectification of the fault in the submarine cable were followed step by step and two cable ships were involved for the localization of the fault.

Junaid added the fault was rectified and all the services had been normalized around Friday noon.

The fault was developed by fishing boats. They damaged two cables while anchoring, therefore, the cable stopped working on June 27, halting some 10 million Internet connections, according to the PTCL official.

The fault in the cable was located in the Arabian Sea about 15 kilometers southwest of Karachi, Pakistan's main sea port.

Pakistan is normally connected to the Internet by a single undersea fiber link. Officials say a new cable would be laid by October to avoid such Internet disruption in the future.

Source: Xinhua