KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Sunday staged a protest rally from Lyari Gate to the Karachi Press Club against prolonged electricity and gas outages in Lyari and other areas of the city’s south district, warning that demonstrations would be held outside the headquarters of both utility providers if the situation was not addressed.

Led by PPP South District President Javed Nagori, the rally was attended by MNA Sardar Nabil Gabol, senior party leaders, local representatives, workers and a large number of women and residents from Lyari, Saddar, Burns Road, Garden and other affected neighbourhoods.

Addressing the protesters, MNA Gabol said meetings with K-Electric (KE) officials at the national and provincial assembly levels had failed to improve the utility’s performance or attitude towards consumers.

He vowed that the PPP would protest at every available forum alongside the South District organisation until KE and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) corrected their practices.

The demonstrators raised slogans against both utility companies and demanded an end to prolonged electricity and gas outages.

Mr Nagori described prolonged power outages in Lyari as an act of high-handedness by KE, claiming that residents faced up to 16 hours of loadshedding daily, with outages reaching 21 hours in some localities.

He also criticised SSGC for failing to provide adequate gas despite collecting charges from consumers for newly laid pipelines across Karachi.

He said the Sindh government had distributed solar systems to thousands of households in line with PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s announcement regarding 300 units of free electricity.

He demanded immediate government action against KE and warned that the protest movement would continue until public grievances were resolved.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2026