RAWALPINDI: A power breakdown of more than 16 hours on Saturday affected the routine life in residential areas near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport.

The electricity breakdown started early in the morning and continued till 9pm with Iesco Deputy Manager (Operations) Kashif Shah claiming that an underground supply line at Rahimabad Flyover had been damaged due to fire and repair work was in progress.

Mr Shah told Dawn that initially it took time to find the fault and then repair it.

On the other hand, the residents of Faisal Colony, Fazal Town, Chaklala and three union councils near the airport remained without power in the sweltering heat.

“The suspension of electricity has also led to acute water shortage,” said Wasim Khalid, a resident of Faisal Colony.

Mr Khalid said the residents of the area had been contacting the Iesco officials since long but their mobile phones remained switched off and the company’s complaint number was continuously busy.

The residents feared that such power disruptions during Ramazan would add to their problems.

The government has been claiming to end loadshedding but the Iesco officials come up with new ways to suspend supply on the pretext of repair works,” said Khalid Malik of Gulzar-i-Quaid.

He said due to the absence of power, water could not be pumped from underground tanks to the overhead tanks, creating a severe shortage of the basic commodity.

Mukhtar Raja, a resident of Airport Road, said the breakdown was a result of mismanagement on part of Iesco.

Fazal Hussain of Chaklala believed that Iesco took such a long time to repair the fault in order to divert the supply of electricity to upscale localities during the period.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2017