KARACHI, July 4: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has taken notice of the frequent and prolonged power breakdowns in the city amid sizzling heat.

The PM was talking to newsmen, who had drawn his attention to the people’s agony, after the 79th midshipmen commissioning parade at the PNS Rahbar here on Friday. He acknowledged that the situation had evoked street protests and forced the citizens to spend sleepless nights.

Mr Jamali said that he did receive reports of widespread complaints about frequent and prolonged power failures in various areas of the metropolis and that he had had a meeting with the provincial authorities on Thursday night in this regard.

He said that the governor and chief minister had summoned managing director of KESC to sort out the problem.

He agreed that in this hot weather, power breakdowns caused inconveniences to every one, but he blamed also those consumers who were either using kundas or not paying their power bills for the situation. “Fault lies both ways,” he remarked.

He, however, evaded a question about the causes of frequent breakdowns in the 11kv system of the KESC for which millions of rupees had been spent by the utility.