As complaints of power outages continued to mount but remained unresolved, citizens in various parts of the city took to the streets on Tuesday to stage demonstrations. Their protests did fall on deaf ears; in fact, these protests were so charged that the police was called out to quell them.
Shopkeepers of the M. A. Jinnah Road kept blocking the thoroughfare from time to time since morning; three points – Ram Sawami, Memon Masjid and Bohri Bazaar – were obstructed, with protestors torching tyres and causing hours-long gridlocks. City Town and Saddar Town police was subsequently deployed to disperse the crowd.
In Gharibabad, the police resorted to aerial firing to disperse gathered protestors, who had torched tyres at Dakhana Chowk and blocked traffic. A scuffle between protesters and policemen was also reported from Lasbela Chowk, when angry protesters attacked the cops for trying to restore vehicular traffic.
Residents of Sultanabad, Hijrat Colony also took to the streets against suspension of power supply due to line faults. Power supply in Sultanabad could not be restored even after a violent protest on Monday. Police rushed to the spot to clear the road because of VIP movement, but later in the evening, residents blocked the PIDC road again. Residents of Patel Para, Korangi 2 1/2, Nashtar Road, Orangi Town No. 2, Banaras and Musharraf Colony also came out of their houses to protest suspension in power supply.
On the other hand, students taking their Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) Part-I exams were forced to answer some tough questions because of the suspension in power supply at examination centres. HSSC Part-II students are also facing difficulties in preparing for their final exams.
Meanwhile, protesting employees of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) forcibly sent their colleagues home for yet another day. A limited number of dedicated staff tried to remove line faults, but they failed to keep up with the mounting complaints.
