KARACHI: Prolonged spells of loadshedding that has become order of the day in the city over the past few months continued even on Ashura, piling miseries on people, especially the mourners, as majalis at several places were affected due to power disruption, it emerged on Wednesday.
Reports pouring in from almost every part of the city suggested that the K-Electric instead of giving any relief on 9th and 10th of Muharram carried out loadshedding for six to 12 hours in several parts of metropolis, including the areas that had been declared ‘exempted’ by the power utility.
Residents of different localities said that the loadshedding was carried out in every part of the city regardless of the so-called high and low losses areas declared by the KE.
Participants in the main Ashura procession from across the city spent a sleepless night when they got homes to suffer one-hour loadshedding at least three times at night-time.
Prolonged outages compel people to spend sleepless night
A resident of Model Colony said that loadshedding was being carried out in the entire area from 1am to 2am and 3am to 4am regularly. “There was no respite in loadshedding even on Ashura,” he deplored.
Another resident of Rizvia Society said that traditionally loadshedding was not carried out on 9th and 10 of Muharram in the past. “But this year, the KE did not spare people of ordeal of loadshedding during the two mourning days,” he added.
The people also expressed their concern on loadshedding on 9th and 10th Muharram as the two days were closed holidays.
“The KE resorted to worst loadshedding during the days of mourning when there has to be a lesser gap between demand and supply of electricity,” said Mazhar Shah, a resident of Gulshan Iqbal’s 13-D block.
Residents of Malir said that they rented power generators for uninterrupted supply to hold majalis during Ashura.
They said that the majalis held at small scale at houses were badly affected due to unannounced and prolonged loadshedding as there was a severe shortage of generators available for rent.
The areas affected by unannounced loadshedding included Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Surjani Town, New Karachi, Federal B Area, F. C Area, Azizabad, Saddar, Burns Road, Defence Housing Authority, Clifton, Baldia Town, Manghopir, Orangi Town, Landhi, Shah Faisal Colony, Model Colony, Shaheed-i-Millat, Tariq Road, PECHS, Mehmoodabad, Akhtar Colony and Defence View apartments, Jamshed Road, Sultanabad and Hijrat Colony.
Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2022
