Karachi residents spend night protesting power cuts

KARACHI: Residents of the city’s Korangi and Gulistan-e-Jauhar areas spent Thursday night protesting ‘unjust’ load shedding in their localities.

Korangi’s Zaman Town residents said they have been without electricity for 24 hours. Residents burnt tires and blocked the road, suspending traffic.

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The protesters dispersed only after police reached the site assured them of reducing the power cuts in their areas. Similar scenes were witnessed in block-7 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

Moreover, Liaquatabad, Old City, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, North Karachi and Landhi, among other areas, are suffering from prolonged power cuts.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the city’s power utility, K-Electric, said it is wrong to term localised faults during Sehri time as ‘load shedding’. The spokesperson claimed that no load shedding is carried out in residential areas.

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KE spokesperson said the power utility company invests in its structure and will also continue to do so in future

The relentless power cuts have also caused a shortage of water in the port city. Officials of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) said that recent load shedding at their main pumping stations, including Dhabeji, have resulted in curtailment of water supply.

KWSB Deputy Managing Director Asadullah told Geo News that the intermittent power supply to the Dhabeji, Pipri, Gharo, NIK and Hub pumping stations has affected the flow of water to the residents.

However, K-Electric chief marketing officer Fakhar Ahmed said they have installed new transformers at the water board, adding that KWSB’s faulty system is to blame for the water shortage and not the power utility.

Rest of Sindh in the dark too

Meanwhile, overnight protests were also held across Sindh, with demonstrations occurring in Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Tando Allah Yar and other districts of the province.

Residents complained of 6-12 hours of load-shedding in their areas.  

A spokesperson of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company said the situation will improve in the next few days. 

'Record generation'

Early Friday morning, Federal Water and Power Minister sent out a congratulatory tweet stating that Pakistan had achieved a 'record' generation of 18,000 megawatts as of June 1, 9:15pm.

Sharing demand and supply numbers, the minister also claimed that no unscheduled load shedding is taking place in the country.