KARACHI, June 30: People had to spend yet another sleepless night as power supply to many areas remained suspended whole the night between Thursday and Friday. In some other areas, the supply was suspended soon after midnight and restored only at dawn on Friday.

Electricity in most towns of Karachi continued to play hide-and-seek either due to breakdowns or load-shedding. However, the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation insisted its power distribution system was ‘working properly’.

The areas where power went off for a long duration several times during the past 24 hours included Patel Para, Rizvia and Golimar, where people took to the streets to express their anger over the indifference and poor performance of the power utility. They lit bonfire to block Nawab Siddique Ali Khan Road and littered it with bricks. Police reached the spot in the wee hours of Friday and lobbed teargas shells to disperse the angry youths and reopen the road to vehicular traffic.

Emotions ran high among people of the affected areas as they and their family members suffered heavily on account of several days of prolonged breakdowns amid the persistent hot and humid weather conditions.

Residents of blocks 9, 7, 14, 15 and 16 said that power went off in these blocks at around midnight and the area was energised shortly before dawn on Friday. Scores of families in each of the block had to spend the night in the parks of their respective locality to escape suffocation.

A resident of Block-L, North Nazimabad, Mr Zeeshan said that people of his locality were forced to spend a sleepless night as they had to leave their homes due to the hide-and-seek of electricity throughout the day.

A resident of North Nazimabad said that power breakdown for five hours took place in her locality and the KESC officials were not attending the phone at the concerned complaint centre.

A resident of Shadman Town, stating that load-shedding of 60 to 90 minutes for four times in 24 hours was a matter of routine in the area, but on Friday, power supply was suspended first at 8:30am for three hours and then at 9:30pm. It was not restored till 11:30pm, he added.

In Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Block 20, power went off at 1:30am on Friday for three hours and again at 8am till noon. After seven hours of the suspension in power supply, the KESC carried out another 90-minute load-shedding, a perturbed resident lamented.

Residents of Malir-Khokhrapar complained that power breakdowns had become a routine in Saudia Colony, Kausar Town, Indus Mehran, A-Area and A-1 area, besides the adjoining localities.

Aitezaz Ahsan, a student of class IX, said that his locality, Gulshan-i-Farooq, Sector 7/D-2, North Karachi, suffered intermittent power failures because of which he could not do his studies properly.

A resident of Block-4A, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, said that power, which was restored to this locality on Thursday morning after a 40-hour breakdown, went off again in the afternoon for several hours. It was suspended at 10pm for yet another four hours to be restored only at 2am on Friday. For the rest of the day, it continued to play hide-and-seek, he added.

Pradeep Kumar from Block-14 in Gulshan-i-Iqbal said that the power supply was suspended at 3am for one hour, then from 5am to 6pm and yet again at 4pm for 90 minutes more. It was again suspended at 8:30pm and was yet to be restored, he said.

A consumer from Block-16/A, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Mr Shahryar, said that power supply was suspended in his locality for three hours on Thursday-Friday night forcing the residents of the locality to spend a sleepless night in this hot and humid weather.