KARACHI: Karachi had its first test blackout on Sunday night [Aug 4] from 10 to 10-30 p.m. As the sirens were sounded at 10 p.m. the city was plunged into darkness. At places sirens were not heard but the people took their cue from the street lights. The Manora light-house and the lights in the navigation channel were the only exception. Judged from the point of view of the citizens’ co-operation the experiment was a great success.

The people did not wait to be told to put out their lights. Instances were very few where the police or the Civil Defence authorities had to intervene. The work of the … authorities, was … made easy by the enthusiastic co-operation of the people. They urged their neighbours to observe blackout and even stopped some of the offending cars which were plying with their head-lights on and some of the buses which had kept their inside lights burning.

The Director-General of Civil Defence, Mr S.N. Bakar; the Administrator of Karachi; and officials of the Civil Defence organisation for Karachi; went up in an aircraft to judge the success of the blackout. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2026