KARACHI, June 12: An unrelenting heat wave, marked by high humidity, added to the misery of the people of the city, who bore with prolonged and intermittent power breakdowns on Thursday.

The Met Office said that the humidity had been more than 50 per cent for the past one week. On Thursday, it rose to 67 per cent, with temperature ranging between 28.5 and 35 degrees Centigrade.

A resident of Bhittai Colony called to say that he wanted to condemn the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation in the strongest possible terms. “I have just returned from work and there has been no electricity in my locality for quite some time. It has become a daily feature now. Quite often we wake up when we lose our electric supply at night,” he said.

He said that the residents of the Defence and Clifton areas, who could afford to have uninterrupted power supply systems, did not have as many power breakdowns as the people of his locality and adjoining areas.

Calling from North Karachi, Sector 11-A, a woman consumer criticized KESC for not evolving any mechanism to avoid power shutdowns in a systematic manner. “Since I work at an office, I have to schedule my work at home in such a manner that everything goes smoothly in the morning, when my children are going to school and my husband and myself are going to work. But when we have a night-long power breakdown, everything becomes chaotic in the morning, causing us all to be late for work and school,” she complained.

Calling from Garden East, a resident said that he had the first power breakdown at about six in the morning. “The power breakdown lasted two hours and the supply was restored around 8am. The second power breakdown occurred at 10am and again lastedtwo hours. The third power breakdown occurred later in the day, which was a brief breakdown, lasting only a couple of minutes.”

A resident of the Federal B Area, Block 15, said that his locality had faced two power breakdowns on Thursday. He added that in addition to power breakdowns, his locality also faced the problem of low voltage.

A resident of the Shah Faisal Colony said that his locality had two power breakdowns, lasting two hours each time.