KARACHI, June 13: People in various areas of the city lit bonfires, disrupted traffic and staged protest demonstrations on Monday against over 12 hours of daily loadshedding in sweltering heat, while the management of the Karachi Electric Supply Company continued to blame protesting workers for power woes.

The KESC management even refused to “engage in any discussions with the PM committee and may also have to suspend all operational activities until the government enforces its writ and ensures reopening of all its offices”.

The prime minister had held a special meeting on Friday to address the KESC matters and had entrusted the matter to a committee which has not yet called the two parties.

On Monday when the mercury was 36 degrees Celsius with 56 per cent humidity, residents of PECHS Block 2 and 6 took to the streets to give vent to their anger by burning tyres and creating roadblocks as they were again subjected to prolonged outages after they had gone through more than 14 hours of electricity breakdowns.

The worst-affected areas included North Karachi, New Karachi, Sindhi Muslim Society, Khudadad Colony, parts of Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Al-Hilal Society, Jubilee, Clifton, Malir, Landhi, Korangi and Orangi.

A street protest was also staged at Akhtar Colony, where power outages have fuelled water shortages.

While the agony of sleepless nights caused by lack of power supply was becoming unbearable, the cost of damaged electrical appliances due to sudden outages and fluctuations was making things even worse.

A woman calling from Block-15 of Gulistan-i-Jauhar was furious as she said she had to spend the night without light and even during the day power supply remained off for about two hours after every hour.

When she pointed out to KESC people that in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block 7 there was no loadshedding, she was rudely told: “That is none of your business”.

Meanwhile, residents of Sachal Goth claimed the KESC management was not addressing their power supply issue. They added that the outages had affected water supply in the area.