Another dark day in Karachi

Angry citizens take to the streets against power outages, water shortage

KARACHI: Residents of Karachi braved another hot day with prolonged power breakdowns reported from various localities of the city on Thursday night and throughout the day on Friday.

Tempers and temperature in the city rose in direct proportion as a number of residents took to the streets to vent their frustration at load-shedding and water shortage on Friday.



Resultantly, both tracks of Shaheed-e-Millat Expressway, one of the city's main arteries, and its adjoining roads witnessed a four-hour-long traffic jam. Besides the expressway, protests also took place in other parts of the city, including Sohrab Goth, Shafiq Morr, Mirza Adam Khan Road, ICI Bridge, Liaquatabad, Mauripur Road and Clifton.

Lights out

According to the K-Electric, power supply was suspended in a number of areas on Thursday night due to the tripping of Queen's Road grid station. The areas affected were Lyari, Kharadar, Saddar, II Chudrigar Road, Sultanabad, Clifton and Defence Housing Authority (DHA). Power supply was completely restored by 5:30am, claimed the power utility.

Protests

A major protest was held near Baloch Colony on Friday, which led to a massive traffic jam on both sides of Shaheed-e-Millat Expressway. A number of residents of Baloch Colony and its vicinity, including Mehmoodabad, Manzur Colony, Kashmir Colony and Akhtar Colony, participated in the protest. Among them were a large number of women and children, who were then joined by affected shopkeepers.





The situation turned violent when a mob started pelting stones at passing vehicles and blocked the roads by setting tyres on fire, which caused a gridlock on the expressway. Even though law enforcers were deployed, they could not control the situation, which made them call in more contingents, particularly the Rangers.

The protesters went on to clash with law enforcement personnel. In retaliation, the Rangers resorted to aerial fire to disperse the protesters.

In Liaquatabad, the protesters reportedly attempted to attack the K-Electric office, tried to enter the office and also broke its doors. The police and Rangers also reached these protest sites and dispersed the demonstrators through use of force.

According to Baloch Colony SHO Malik Saleem, some of the protesters were trying to make the situation violent. "The protest was calm but some protesters tried to make the situation violent, which forced the law enforcers to use force against them," the officer explained. The officer said that the law enforcers also took the protesters to the K-Electric office, where officials assured them of restoring electricity within the affected areas.



Grievances

"The K-Electric is sending bills of thousands of rupees each month but they are not providing us with electricity," said a protester, adding that the utility is being unjust to the poor and middle-class citizens of Karachi. "I am a daily wage earner and my monthly income is Rs20,000," said a protester, Nadeem. "How can I afford Rs10,000 to Rs12,000 electricity bills each month, especially when there is no electricity during almost half the month?"

A girl who lives near the Red Zone shared with The Express Tribune that power supply in her area was finally restored at 5:15am (Friday).

Another young man living in the vicinity of Malir Cantt said residents face load-shedding for eight to 10 hours every day besides major voltage issues. "There are no real follow-ups on complaints," he added.

According to a resident of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, his area is exempted from load-shedding but he still hasn't had consistent power supply for an entire day during the past two weeks. "I lodged complaints on Twitter and via phone, to no immediate help," he told The Express Tribune, adding that once it took K-Electric eight hours to respond to a complaint of a fallen wire.

"Officials of K-Electric advise [us] to shift our homes," a resident of Lyari said on Twitter.

Justifications

According to K-Electric's chief marketing and communication officer, Fakhar Ahmed, the [Thursday night] fault emerged at Queen's Road grid station. "Power supply to key hospitals such as [Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre] JPMC and Civil hospital as well as strategic locations such as the Chief Minister House and Governor House was ensured during the breakdown," he said. He added that while sharing load management, the areas of Clifton and some isolated pockets of DHA were also affected for 'one to two hours' during the night.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2016.