IESCO’s apathy: Housing complex without power for last three days

Power supply to Bilal Villas suspended since Friday

RAWALPINDI: Residents of a housing complex on Adiala Road have been without electricity for the last three days as the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) has failed to fix a faulty transformer.

Residents of Bilal Villas — consisting of around 60 homes — said they had been without power since Friday.

The residents said that they had also been without water due to power suspension.

Residents said that the Iesco officials, while citing a “technical fault” in a transformer had completely disconnected the power supply to the housing complex and the locality had been in complete darkness for the last 72 hours.

“Our lives have come to a standstill due to the absence of electricity. It is hard to even breathe in this suffocating and sweltering milieu.

It seems that we are living in stone-age,” said major (retd) Muhammad Arif, a resident of the villas, who had been repeatedly visiting the Iesco office to get the fault fixed but in vain.

“Even mobile phones have stopped working due to not charging. There is no television and no access to the internet. We are completely cut off from everyone,” he said.

The Iesco officials confirmed the power disruption in the area citing a technical fault in the transformer.

“We are trying to fix it. Due to the weekend, we do not have enough staff. The matter would be resolved soon,” a senior Iesco official claimed.

He said that the technical glitch might have occurred due to the recent heavy rains.

“We are cognisant of the plight of the people and have received hundreds of complaints about power disruption in the area. The issue will be fixed on Monday as our technical staff is joining the office tomorrow,” the official said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2016.