Karachi: Violence erupts against prolonged power outages

[Naveed Yaseen]

The worsening power supply situation in the city took an ugly turn on Saturday as people resorted to violence and rioting against prolonged power breakdowns.

Around midday, people took to the streets near Ayesha Manzil, Shahrah-e-Pakistan, and in a few moments, their protest against prolonged power failures turned violent, hampering the flow of vehicular traffic on the main artery.

The protestors lit a bonfire by setting old tyres and other junk on fire and also pelted stones at passing vehicles. The police and local body representatives of the area had to intervene to assuage the violence.

According to some reports, the police had to fire tear gas canisters to disperse the protestors who had caused disruption in the smooth flow of traffic on a major road for a considerable period of time.

Official Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) sources said that the area in question was without electricity due to a fault in the underground cable system near Federal ‘B’ Area for which the KESC staff had been attending to the complaint. The work of the KESC complaint staff had been delayed owing to an undue intervention in the repair work by the city government personnel. Sources said that a complaint vehicle of a KESC contractor also came under attack by the protestors.

Meanwhile, the Gulberg police, on behalf of the state, registered a case against unidentified people for resorting to violence and protesting near Ayesha Manzil. The Gulberg police said that no arrests had been made so far.

Meanwhile, the mercury touched maximum 37 degree Centigrade with 57 per cent humidity, while residents of Federal ‘B’ Area, Nazimabad, Saddar, Malir, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Clifton, and old areas of the city complained against prolonged instances of power breakdown.

The KESC said that around 7:30 pm the demand of electricity in the city was 2,294 Megawatts (MW), and that the power utility resorted to load-shedding of 275MW. Other independent sources privy to the power supply situation said that the privatised KESC resorted to a maximum load-shedding of around 400MW.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=178002