KARACHI, July 3: Many areas in the metropolis remained without electricity for several hours on Tuesday due to what the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation described as cable faults.
As the utility was resorting to more than 250 megawatts load-shedding, residents of Garden, North Nazimabad, North Karachi and Buffer Zone complained that the KESC teams were rejoining the snapped wires in a hurry without ensuring proper earthing.
In case of further rains, if the wires snapped again, it would increase the danger of electrocution, they feared.
Insiders said that the Siemens-dominated operations and management of the utility was not alive to the realities of the situation on the ground and it was just misleading the people as well as the government about the power crisis in the city.
This was evident from the complaints received from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Buffer Zone and Defence. When harassed KESC clients tried to reach the utility’s Director Operations, Adnan Bashir Khan, on his cell numbers 0300-8222723 and 0300-9252222, he did not respond. The KESC spokesperson was also unable to give a satisfactory reply.
Mr Muslehuddin, resident of Khyaban-i-Badar, Phase VI, complained that her locality had no electricity from 1pm. At 7pm, he was again promised that electricity would be restored by 9.30pm. He said that power outages of longer durations had become a daily routine. But the KESC was claiming that it was due to cable faults, which was beyond our comprehension, he added.
Mr Muslehuddin demanded of the government to take serious notice of the inability of the KESC management to address the problem.
A resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Mir Zulfikar, complained that a vast area of the locality remained without power from 1am. Electricity was restored for about an hour at about 9am, but around 10am again power supply to the area got suspended.
He said that the KESC complaint centers were not even providing mere lip-service as most of the time they did not even respond to the queries of the consumers.
