KARACHI, June 5: Loadshedding continued to plague the lives of 1.7 million consumers of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation on Wednesday who remained in the dark about the hours during which their localities would remain without electricity.

The KESC announced on Tuesday that it would carry out loadshedding till June 24 to overcome the power shortage.

Residents calling from different localities said the KESC should announce the loadshedding hours because they did not know when power would go off.

Calling Dawn office at around 9pm, Shaukat Ali, a resident of Garden East off Britto Road, said his locality had been without electricity since noon. “This cannot be loadshedding because it is not supposed to last that long. I have been trying to call our regional complaint centre at 9215200 since noon but nobody has answered the phone.”

Mohammad Tahir, a former employee of the KESC, said the power utility always tried to avoid giving a loadshedding schedule because it was difficult for the KESC to carry out the loadshedding according to the plan. “Previously, the KESC had no way of receiving information at one centralized centre. Now that a centralized information cell is in place, the KESC may succeed in carrying out loadshedding after announcing a schedule. Nevertheless, it is a difficult task.”

A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 4-A, told Dawn there had been fluctuations in power in his locality which, he added, was very bad for electronic equipment.

A resident of North Nazimabad, Block L, phoned Dawn to complain about a power breakdown as a result of tripping in a high-tension wire.

Wasif Ahmed, a resident of Gulistan-i-Jauher, said his locality experienced power shutdowns almost every day at around 1pm. “The KESC complaint centre of my area said that loadshedding was being carried out for three hours every day. When I called 118 they said that there was some cable fault in my area.”

A resident of Khawaja Ajmer Nagri said the previous night they had experienced a power shutdown from 10pm to 1am. “We tried to contact the complaint centre of our area, but telephones at the complaint centre were busy.”