The interior ministry announced on Thursday that mobile services, which were suspended earlier today as Pakistanis came out to vote, were starting to be partially restored in different parts of the country.

The ministry in a post on X said mobile services were partially restored in Punjab’s Bhakkar, Sargodha, Taxila and Gujar Khan Chakri, as well as Loralai. Jhal Magsi and Sibi in Balochistan .

In Sindh, the ministry services have been restored everywhere except “Malik and Karachi”.

It added that more areas will get their mobile services back soon.

As soon as voting started at 8:00am today, the caretaker government suspended mobile phone services “to strengthen security as voting began in the country’s national election”, the interior ministry said.

“As a result of the recent incidents of terrorism in the country precious lives have been lost, security measures are essential to maintain the law and order situation and deal with possible threats, hence the temporary suspension of mobile services across the country,” the interior ministry said in a message on X.

Later, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja said that he was in constant touch with the government over the suspension of cellular services.

Talking to the media in Islamabad, the CEC said he was cognizant of the difficulties faced by voters due to the suspension of mobile phone services.

The chief election commissioner said people should have checked their voting details by sending a message on 8300 before the polling day.