Karachi residents hold protest against prolonged power outages

Islamabad, April 28 Residents in Karachi held a protest against prolonged, unannounced power outages lasting up to 16 hours daily, resulting in severe traffic congestion in the city’s business district for hours, local media reported on Tuesday.

The protests on Monday impacted vehicular movement on the I.I. Chundrigar Road, Ziauddin Ahmed Road and nearby areas for over two hours, with roads in nearby areas, including Saddar and Pakistan Chowk, clogged and commuters facing difficulty under extreme heat as queues of traffic stretched for kilometres, daily Dawn reported.

Frustrated with prolonged power outages, residents of Railway Colony gathered at the Shaheen Complex intersection, blocked traffic and shouted slogans against K-Electric for resorting to "unannounced" loadshedding for long hours.

The protesters demanded immediate restoration of power supply, complaining that unannounced loadshedding of up to 16 hours in the area made life of residents very difficult during the summer.

A resident said that they had not received the proper power supply for the past several weeks. "Our children can’t sleep, patients are suffering, and there’s no water because the pumps don’t work without electricity."

Another resident, Muhammad Aslam, said that they were forced to live without electricity for 16 hours despite paying their bills regularly. "How long can we stay silent?" he asked.

Another protester, Shazia Bibi, said that unannounced loadshedding for long hours was torture for residents. "Our food is rotting, we can’t charge our phones, and the heat is killing us."

Office-goers, students, and patients faced problems due to traffic congestion under scorching heat, due to the protests.

A woman who was taking her father to a hospital said that they were stranded in the traffic for 90 minutes with no way out, Dawn reported.

Police reached the protest site and negotiated with the demonstrators. The protest was dispersed after nearly 30 minutes, but the traffic jam took over two hours to clear.

People were facing problems from earlier this month as the power outages increased up to eight hours in urban areas and 12-16 hours in rural areas in the service areas of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) and other districts of Pakistan's Punjab province.

The situation worsened after the power distribution in Lahore and cities and towns in other districts started observing unannounced or forced loadshedding on an hourly basis, resulting in people spending most of their time without electricity, Dawn reported.

Several divisions and districts of Punjab, including Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Toba Tek Singh, Sahiwal, Kasur, Sheikhupura, Multan, Khanewal, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Muzaffargarh, and Dera Ghazi Khan, also witnessed power outages. The Lesco spokesperson said that there was an increase in complaints about loadshedding.

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