KARACHI, Oct 2: Despite an increased supply from the Sui Southern Gas Company, the Karachi Electric Supply Company failed to provide relief to people as it carried out about 12 hours of loadshedding in several areas of the city on Sunday.

The overall power consumption in the city was much less on Sunday as compared to a working day, yet the KESC failed to meet the demand.

Residents of many localities spent a sleepless night between Saturday and Sunday because of frequent outages.

A representative of the small and medium manufacturers, Arif Balwani, condemned the KESC for carrying out eight hours of loadshedding in industrial areas.

He said the KESC with its performance was gradually killing the small and medium enterprises in the city which, he pointed out, contributed to 55 per cent of the country's tax revenue.

The president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mian Abrar Ahmad, criticised what he called the dictatorial practice of the KESC and said that in view of the blackmailing attitude of the KESC, industrial associations had decided not to pay KESC bills.

He said payment against these bills would be deposited in their respective associations' offices. The amount, he said, would be paid only after the KESC ended load-shedding and gave a long-term guarantee about an uninterrupted power supply to industrial areas.

He appealed to the president, prime minister, Sindh governor and chief minister to take notice of the 'unconstitutional' steps of the KESC.

The KESC said that breakdowns were caused because of “under-frequency operations from the national transmission and dispatch company which affected about a dozen grid stations”.

The situation was not normalised even after the entire day passed as the utility did not increase its own generation to fill the gap created by withdrawal of supply from Wapda.

A KESC spokesperson said that the KDA-Gulshan Extra High Tension circuit conductor was stolen in the morning leading to power disruption in several areas.

Residents of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Shah Faisal Colony, Malir and Safoora Goth were facing extended loadshedding.