KARACHI, Sept 15: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation failed to ensure uninterrupted power supply in many areas of the city despite the fact that weather remained pleasant on Wednesday.

Calling from a number of localities, residents said that it was beyond them why power breakdowns occurred when temperature, as well as overall electricity demand, remained low. Some said that they had been told by their regional complaint centres that because of a shortage of electricity, loadshedding was being carried out by the KESC.

A complainant calling Dawn at 8.30pm from Soldier Bazaar said that his locality had experienced a 10-hour-long power breakdown on Wednesday. "Apart from Soldier Bazaar, Parsi Colony and other adjoining localities remained without electricity for a long time.

Since these localities are inhabited by mostly trading communities, they all must have suffered a lot of financial loss today because the index of the Karachi Stock Exchange fell down by more than 90 points.

They were unable to follow the trading activity at the bourse because of the power breakdown. I called my regional complaint centre and asked them who would compensate my losses. They had no answer to my question," he said.

A resident of Garden, Mohiuddin, told Dawn that his locality had experienced intermittent power breakdowns on Wednesday. He added that telephones at his regional complaint centre had been constantly engaged.

From Federal B Area's Block-14, a resident said that the KESC had no sympathy for its poor consumers who were left with no option but to brave prolonged power breakdowns. "The weather is so pleasant, and yet power breakdowns are occurring without let- up," he said.

Calling from Clifton's Block-6, Mir Iqbal expressed similar sentiments and said that he was disappointed with the performance of the KESC. "There seems to be no accountability in the KESC.

Its engineers fail to provide electricity to consumers and yet no action is taken against them. Its complaint centre officials misbehave with consumers and yet no action is taken against them. How long will we have to put up with the inefficiency of the KESC?" he wondered.

Calling from North Nazimabad's Block-B, Azizur Rahman said that his locality had experienced a couple of breakdowns on Wednesday. "The first power breakdown occurred at 11am and continued till 3.30pm. The second power breakdown, which started at 5.15pm, came to an end at 7pm," he added.

However, a spokesman for the KESC said that there was no shortage of electricity and the power utility was not carrying out load shedding. He added that in some areas electricity supply was disconnected because of ongoing system upgrade work. He said that the Bin Qasim power station was generating over 750 megawatts on a daily basis.