Residents of Karachi’s Railway Colony brought major roads in the city’s commercial district to a halt while protesting extended, unannounced power outages that they say lasted as long as 16 hours a day.
The demonstration near Shaheen Complex snarled traffic on I.I. Chundrigar Road, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road and surrounding streets, creating long queues that stretched toward Saddar and Pakistan Chowk. Men, women and children blocked intersections, chanting against K-Electric and demanding that electricity be restored immediately amid intense heat.
Commuters, office workers, students and patients were left stranded for hours. Protesters and local residents said the frequent outages had robbed families of sleep, stopped water pumps, spoiled food, prevented charging of essential devices and worsened conditions for sick household members. Stranded passengers warned that the chaos and delays also posed risks to people needing timely access to hospitals in Saddar.
While some bystanders and observers sympathized with the residents’ grievances, others criticized the road blockades for disrupting the wider public. Police moved in and dispersed the crowd after about 30 minutes, but traffic disruption continued for more than two hours before normal flow returned.
K-Electric told media that power to parts of Railway Colony had been cut over non-payment of bills and that supply was restored after local representatives assured the company that dues would be cleared. The protest highlights tensions between residents affected by lengthy outages and the utility over billing and service reliability.
