ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s energy minister on Tuesday blamed the worst power outage in months on a lack of investment in the network, saying the aid-dependent nation had “learned lessons” from the breakdown that left millions of people without electricity. Like much of the national infrastructure, the power network desperately needs an upgrade, but funding has been patchy as Pakistan lurched from one International Monetary Fund bailout to the next. The outage, which began on Monday morning, was the second major breakdown since October. Pakistan has enough installed power capacity to meet demand, but the sector is so heavily in debt that it cannot afford to invest in infrastructure and power lines. “The government plans to add more power distribution lines within the next 36 months,” he added.

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