KARACHI, June 24: Power breakdowns continued to occur on Friday in spite of a drop in temperature. Sources in the centralized complaint centre of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation told Dawn that they received complaints from PECHS, Malir, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Bangalore Town, Sindhi Muslim Society, Garden East, Federal B Area, Surjani Town, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, North Nazimabad, Golimar, Nazimabad, Kharadar, Korangi and Shabbirabad.

A resident of Federal B Area, Block 16, said his locality experienced a prolonged power breakdown the previous night. “We lost our electricity around 9.30pm which was restored around 3.30am. Enraged youths from the locality stormed the local complaint centre at 1.45am and threatened the staff that if power supply was not restored shortly, they would be forced to take the law into their own hands. Our power supply was restored within an hour. But on Friday, we kept having hourly power breakdowns,” he said.

A resident of North Karachi said they had to bear with a prolonged power breakdown on Friday because of a retaliatory move by KESC staff.

“We did without electricity for a couple of hours on Friday. When a KESC vehicle came to our area to repair a pole-mounted transformer, we were informed that the KESC had switched off electricity following an attack on a local complaint centre,” he said.

A resident of KDA Scheme-33 said his locality remained without electricity for an hour in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, a Muttahida Quami Movement delegation, comprising MNAs and MPAs, visited the KESC Power House, Elander Road, and held talks with the KESC managing direcot, Brig Tariq Saddozai, and senior chief engineers about current power shortages, overloading of the transmission and distribution network, localized power breakdowns and remedial measures, a KESC spokesman told Dawn.

The managing director told the delegation that the KESC faced an electricity shortage. He said that the shortage would be overcome with the establishment of a direct link between the KESC and Hubco, which would give the power utility an additional 1,000 megawatts. He added that the direct link would be in place by April 2006, the spokesman said.

Muttahida parliamentarians in the delegation said they would approach the federal government to set up more power stations for the city. They suggested that in the interim the KESC should announce a loadshedding schedule in advance. It was also decided that the KESC would ask industrial associations to go slow on power consumption so that electricity could be made available to commercial and domestic users on a priority basis.