KARACHI, June 26: People in various localities faced severe hardships as the power supply that had been suspended on Saturday evening in their respective areas could not be restored by Tuesday night, despite the lapse of 80 hours.

Tuesday’s rain and gusting winds that lashed the city broke the wires of the power distribution network in the Defence Housing Authority and Clifton as many of the localities were without power for 15 to 18 hours.

Most of the KESC complaint centres were closed and people were moving from pillar to post to seek relief from the power outages. The affected consumers complained that the 118 complaint number was constantly busy while the cell numbers for local complaints were either busy or not being attended.

In those complaint centres which were open, the KESC officials told the consumers they did not know when the power supply would be restored.

The utility’s Director Operations, Adnan Bashir Khan, who is an IT professional and has nothing to do with electrical engineering, has not been attending office for the past two days while both his cellular numbers (0300-8222723 and 0300-9252222) are switched off. Supposedly, he is issuing directives from different phone numbers to his subordinates, officials in the KESC claimed.

Besides, the Director Network, Sabahat Ali, whose cell number is 0300-8227160, was also not in contact with his subordinates and a chaos like situation prevails within the power utility, causing an inordinate delay in the repair work and process of restoration of power supply. The role of the newly appointed CEO S.M. Amjad, a retired army officer, (0300-8262011) was nothing but of a silent spectator, the sources claimed.

Dr Ali Farhan, Chief Executive of the Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry, a resident of Block-6, Federal B Area, said his locality was without power since Saturday evening.

“I used my contacts and a KESC van showed up. The officials found an 11KVA line broken but it could not be repaired without the permission from the director operations, who was not in contact with his staff,” he said adding, “what do we: burn bonfires? Pelt vehicles with stones? How can we remedy this?” the dejected doctor asked.

Mrs Saadia Kashif from Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s Block 2 said that the power supply in her locality was suspended 18 hours ago and despite making frantic calls to the complaint centre, no contact could be established. When she went to a complaint centre which was luckily open, the officials there had no idea when the power supply would be restored. “Where should we go to lodge a complaint? Who is in the government and who will provide us relief?” she queried.

Sabir Ali from Gulshan-i-Umair said that the power supply remained suspended for four days in his locality. “There is water in our underground tanks but we cannot pump it into the overhead tanks without electricity. Our children and patients in the locality are the worst affected,” he said.

A resident in Gulshan-i-Maymar said that the power supply in his locality was discontinued before Saturday’s rain and had not been restored despite the lapse of four days.

“We have been continuously trying to lodge complaints with the KESC officials but their complaint centre numbers were busy and no one was ready to listen to our complaints at the area’s complaint centre. Where do we go?” he asked.

Another resident from Pioneer Fountain, Phase II in Metroville-III, Gulzar-i-Hijri said that the power supply was suspended to his locality for more than 14 hours and it had not been restored so far.

Talib from Rizvia-2 opposite Kiran Hospital said that the power supply to his locality was disrupted on Monday evening when it rained and had not been restored by Tuesday evening.A woman consumer from 13th Street of Khayaban-i-Sehr said that the power supply was disconnected to her street and 12th Street every now and then while the rest of the area continued receiving electricity. Several PMTs were replaced but the fault persisted. “How many thousands of rupees will we have to spend on fuel for generators producing electricity due to the inefficient attitude of the officials of the power utility?” she queried.