Power outages spark protests in Karachi

KARACHI: Angry citizens have staged protests in different areas of Karachi over unscheduled and prolonged power outages, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

According to details, the protests were staged at Gulistan-e-Jauhar’s Perfume Chowk and near Safari Park on University Road. The citizens blocked both tracks at Perfume Chowk for traffic, which resulted in traffic jams.

The angry citizens burnt tires in front of the K-Electric office in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. The demonstrators – which includes children and old citizens – chanted slogans against the government for the unscheduled loadshedding.

Earlier, it was reported that the country was being hit badly by unannounced loadshedding of up to 14 hours after the electricity shortfall peaked at 7,000MW.

According to sources privy to the matter, the duration of unannounced loadshedding nationwide remained between six hours to 14 hours after the demand for electricity in the country peaked at 28,000 MW.

A day earlier, Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi announced that the power loadshedding would be reduced to 3.5 hours from Tuesday (today).

The former premier said that from Tuesday, there will only be 3.5 hours of power outages in the country and from June 16, the period would be reduced to three hours. “By June 30, the duration will be less than two hours,” he added.