KARACHI, April 6: The transmission and distribution system of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has been playing up since the advent of the heatwave which took the city by surprise a couple of days back.

KESC officials told Dawn that the number of power breakdowns had gone up with the rise in mercury over the past few days.

“The complaint centres of the power utility have received a large number of complaints. While some complaints are attended to promptly, some remain unattended for a long time, much to the inconvenience of consumers,” they explained.

A consumer from Metroville III told Dawn that recently his locality had a prolonged power breakdown. “That day the temperature had shot to over 40 degrees centigrade and we were without electricity at home. We lodged several complaints — one of them was SA-30 — but nobody from the power centre came to rectify the fault. It was when we pulled a few strings that the power supply was eventually restored,” he said.

Calling from North Karachi, Sector 11-A, a KESC consumer told Dawn that he was most angry with the power utility for penalizing him for the fault of power thieves.

“The KESC managing director recently told a press conference that in those areas where consumers pilfered power, the KESC switched off power supply to these areas in the peak hours. This is highly unjust, for not everybody in my locality pilfers power. But since the feeder that supplies power to my area is the one which, according to the KESC, provides electricity to the consumers who pilfer power, we are often deprived of electricity.”

A consumer from Shah Faisal Colony told Dawn on Sunday that his locality had lost power supply around the Zuhar prayers. “We lodged more than one complaint with our complaint centre but our power supply has not been restored.”