Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, in a letter written to Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif on Sunday, complained about the “fragile and unreliable transmission network” of the national power grid which collapsed in the wee hours of Sunday, thus making the people of Sindh “suffer immensely”.

“On the first day of Ramazan [May 28, 2017] when 13 districts of rural Sindh and half of Karachi division plunged into darkness, after a 500 KV Hubco-Jamshoro transmission line tripped at around 2:15am," read the letter written by the Sindh chief minister to the water and power minister.

Murad Ali Shah said the sudden tripping of “the fragile high transmission lines” created a cascading effect not only in HESCO-SEPCO distribution system but also affected K-Electric, “which was forced to enter into an island mode for system safety by shutting down power supply to large areas of Karachi”.

"The power has not yet been fully restored," he maintained.

The Sindh chief minister further said, "One of the major effects of sudden power outages in Karachi is complete disruption of the water supply system."

The current power outages have disturbed the water supply from Gharo, Dhabeji, Pipri, COD, Hub and North- East Karachi pumping stations which primarily supply drinking water to the entire metropolis. Karachi suffered a loss of about 150 MG water due to this power breakdown.

Reiterating his stance, the chief minister said, "This is a very serious situation, especially when ambient day temperatures are as high as 45 degree Celsius in most parts of Sindh and the holy month of Ramazan has just commenced."

He said the provincial government would be in a precarious situation if lengthy power breakdowns persist, compromising quality and way of life of urban and rural dwellers resulting in a law and order situation.

In Karachi, the reports of power outages had started to roll in around the time the residents of Karachi prepared for sehri in the early hours of Sunday, the first day of Ramazan. Hours later, as the afternoon wore on, the issue had still not been resolved.