Power outage sparks protest in Lyari
A youth makes a cellphone video during the teargas shelling by police at a protest against power outages in Lyari. Photo: PPI
People perturbed by absence of electricity, gas, and water in extremely hot weather came out of their homes in Lyari and blocked the Mauripur Road blocking road traffic coming from Balochistan and the Hub Industrial Area.
Though residents of Lyari blamed K Electric for extended power outages, the utility company claimed that load shedding was being done in the city as per schedule.
Due to protest on Maripur Road, commuters got stuck in a traffic jam, to make things worse miscreants started pelting stones breaking windshields of many vehicles. Subsequenlty, police had to resort to baton charge to disperse the unruly crowd.
Meanwhile, the protestors, while talking to the media, said that if someone was a defaulter KE should disconnect his power connection instead of cutting off power supply of the whole area.
Meanwhile, spokesperson of KE says that the defaulters in different areas of Lyari have arrears of more than Rs10 billion.
Despite several facility camps and reminders, payments were not made. Free electricity supply is not possible he said adding, the load shedding depends on the rate of power theft and line losses in the area.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2023.