ISLAMABAD, June 10: Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi on Saturday informed the National Assembly that a total of 1,455 incidents of power interruption occurred in Karachi during the past three years (2003 to 2005).

In a written reply to a query submitted by the MMA’s Abdus Sattar Afghani, the minister said: “Power interruptions occurred because of tripping of extra-high tension transmission line.”

Giving a break-up, the minister said in 2003, there were 388 power interruptions in Karachi, 559 in 2004 and 508 in 2005. Data showed that Karachi residents on an average faced a power outage daily during the three-year period.

Mr Jatoi said a total of 97.921 million units could not be supplied to the people of Karachi because of the power interruptions during the same period. Of the total, 22.98 million units could not be supplied in 2003, 38.995 million units in 2004 and 35.946 million in 2005.

He said the power generation system was “adjusted” according to the peak load and “as such could not be termed a loss” to the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC).

Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, the minister said that there was a proposal to build an independent inter-connection to import 100 megawatt power from Iran for the Gwadar area, adding that it was being discussed with Iranian officials.