KARACHI, July 8: Power breakdowns affected life in many city areas on Monday.

The worst affected areas included Gulshan-i-Iqbal, North Nazimabad, North Karachi, Muslimabad, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Clifton, Defence and Malir Cant.

In these areas, people said that they had been told by the KESC staff that the power utility had no alternative but

to carry out limited loadshedding, from some hours to give respite to those areas where they had faced an acute power crisis.

A large number of people phoned Dawn to say that telephone numbers of their area complaint centres had been engaged for hours on end. Even 118 had been found engaged most of the time, they added.

A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 6, said his locality had been without electricity since 6pm. The previous night, he added, he had three brief power shutdowns.

A very indignant Khalil Ahmed called from Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Block 16, saying that attendants at the complaint centre of his area were extremely rude. He added that one attendant had told him that the complaint centre had only vehicle, though he had received a large number of complaints.

A resident of Defence, Phase 2, also called to say his locality had been without power for quite some time.

A resident of Malir said he had braved power shutdowns intermittently throughout the previous night.

Calling from Garden East, a resident told Dawn he had faced a power cut at 8pm.

A very angry resident of North Karachi, Sector 11-A, told Dawn houses in his street had been without power since the previous day. He added he had lodged complaints at his regional complaint centre, at 118 and at 134. Nothing, he said, had been done by the KESC to restore his power supply.

A resident of Gharibabad, Federal B Area, told Dawn that his locality had faced the first power cut in the early hours of Monday. “Our power supply went off once again after Zuhar prayers.”

Askari Hussain, calling from Buffer Zone, Sector 16-A near People’s Chowrangi, said: “A KESC official told me at my complaint centre that at KESC complaint centres telephones were left off the hook because the KESC staff did not want to tell subscribers they would not be able to remove faults on time.”