KARACHI: It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness and raise your blood pressure. There can be no better advice for Karachiites who are subjected to sleepless nights and restless days in the sizzling post-monsoon conditions, coinciding with the fasting month, of late. Thanks to the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), which can carry out loadshedding anytime, anywhere and get away even without lame excuses.

Even though the citizens of Karachi have now learnt to live with the menace of loadshedding, the current spell of power failures -- pausing very briefly in the wake of the prime minister’s assurance of 700 megawattS of power from Wapda -- is by far the worst and the longest. Posh or otherwise, hardly any locality in the city experiences a day without a power disruption. A trip here and a spark there is a routine.

Now stretching into Ramazan, the hide-and-seek of electricity has become even more agonising.

A breakdown spanning two to four hours is no news; it is so only if it extends into double figures. Hardly any week goes uneventful. Marathon sessions of power blackout have forced enraged people to take to the streets on countless occasions during the past months. The most violent of the protests happened on the eve of Ramazan on Sunday when almost half the ‘City of Lights’ plunged into darkness due to the suspension of power supply from Wapda in the wake of a glitch in the national electricity transmission.

With unannounced loadshedding now a routine, UPS (uninterrupted power supply) is fast becoming a household name. The city is replete with banners and posters enticing people to cut dependence on the KESC and have their own power houses. One such banner makes an interesting reading: “If you want to pass your school, college and office hours wide-eyed; if you want to come prepared to the examination hall; if you don’t want to miss a party only because your clothes are not pressed… just do one thing: rush for a UPS.” While UPS has just started finding its way into citizens’ homes, self-generation of power is already a rising trend in case of commercial concerns, of course due to frequent power disruptions and the ever-rising electricity tariff.

According to KESC sources, about 400 megawatts of electricity is produced through gas and diesel generators by about 20 per cent of manufacturing units located in SITE, Landhi-Korangi Industrial Zone and Federal B Industrial Area.

Even though installation of generators for power production is a costly affair, it is still viable as it produces power on rates lower than those of the KESC, and involves no disruptions in supply, said the sources.

The scenario must embarrass the new KESC management which, while taking over the corporation a year ago, had made tall claims of doing everything to solve the long-persisting power problem. And what they have done is before all of us.

After grappling with the power crisis for one full year, they decided to ride piggyback on the provincial government and got the Shop Act promulgated to their favour.

After a series of high-level meetings, out came the order that no shops, except for eateries and medical stores, shall remain open after 8pm so that the night activity could be curtailed, and with that the consumption of power. The order issued by the Sindh governor came into effect on June 15, with a subsequent extension till 9pm.

Averse to curbs on their night activity, for obvious reasons, Karachiites accepted the government decision with a pinch of salt in the hope that it would at least change the power crisis situation.

The situation did change, but only for the worse.

Even after 700mw reinforcement from Wapda on the PM’s intervention in July, the KESC failed to deliver, and there is no let-up in power failures. On the contrary, it has given rise to loadshedding in the various cities of Punjab, particularly Lahore.

Wapda’s recent statement that “there would be no loadshedding [in their area of control] across the country during the holy month of Ramazan” is a clear indication that it is not going to feed Karachiites at the cost of its very own consumers as well as its reputation.

If this is really so, it means the menace of loadshedding is here to stay even beyond the post-monsoon conditions. Given the city’s worn-out power infrastructure and an ever-running shortfall, curses are only bound to fall on deaf ears. So it’s better to start counting on the candle, if not the UPS.

One, however, wonders if the price of wax will then be left within the common man’s reach.