KARACHI: Big portion of city plunges into darkness
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, May 4: A major portion of Karachi South plunged into darkness at around 11pm on Friday following a major power breakdown, apparently caused by overload.
Initial reports suggested that Elander Road and Queen’s Road gird stations were affected by the overload and stopped power supply to the several feeders.
There were also reports of sparks and small fire visible at different spots along power cables and on transformers in the affected areas before electricity went off.
The areas affected by the breakdown included Kharadar, Mithadar and several other localities of Lyari, as well as certain phases of Defence and Clifton.
Desperate consumers tried to seek information about the cause of the breakdown and expected restoration of power supply but many of them complained that the KESC people at complaint centres did not respond to their queries.
As a massive load-shedding continued across the city amid scorching heat on Friday, power consumers in a large number participated in a rally which strongly condemned the KESC’s failure to honour its commitment of providing an uninterrupted power supply to their households and business concerns.
The rally, organised by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, slammed the government and the utility for telling lies to people, observing that load-shedding and breakdowns were at their peak and there was no improvement in the situation. Speaking at the rally, MMA leaders threatened to cut off power connections of the privileged ones if the government did not bring an end to the load-shedding.
City chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui alleged that ‘extortionists’ had plunged the city into darkness while citizens were already faced with a surge in crime and unemployment, besides other miseries.
The rally was held at Moosa Lane, Lyari, against persisting load-shedding and water shortage. Participants of the rally chanted slogans against the government and the KESC for making life of people miserable.
They blamed the KESC of causing huge losses to industries by resorting to applying load-shedding, recalling that the load-shedding last year had caused losses running into billions of rupees. They demanded exemption from GST for the Karachi-based businessmen to compensate them.
Dr Siddiqui told the protesters that the government had no right to collect taxes as it could not provide adequate power and water to the tax-payers.
He also declared that on May 12, the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry would be accorded historic welcome on his arrival in the city.
Meanwhile there were reports of prolonged power failures and load-shedding in many areas of the city. A furious woman speaking from Defence Phase-V, asked: “Why nobody takes action against the KESC people? They have resorted to massive and prolonged load-shedding but no one seems to be asking them why.”
She said that even when the power supply was restored after several spells of suspension in the pre-noon session, the voltage was so low that no appliances could work. She deplored that no one at the local KESC complaint centre was responding to complainants. “Perhaps everyone is involved in this plunder,” she remarked.
Similar complaints were received from Defence Phase-IV, Golf Course Road.
Residents of Raja Tanveer Colony, Sector 11-1/2, Orangi Town, said power supply was being suspended regularly for two hours in the morning, afternoon and night which had made their life miserable. Small children were the worst sufferers as there is no alternative source to protect them from the scorching heat. They said the voltage also remained very low.
Complaints of frequent power failures, in addition to load-shedding of several hours, were also received from Federal B Area, North Nazimabad, Gulshan, New Karachi, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Shah Faisal, Malir, Landhi, Korangi and other areas.
