146 die as intense heatwave grips Karachi

KARACHI: At least 146 people have died of heat strokes, dehydration and other ailments due to the sizzling heat in Karachi during the last two days.
One hundred people died in the Jinnah Hospital, 20 in Abbasi Shaheed, nine in Lyari General Hospital and 17 in Civil Hospital.The Executive Director of the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre, Seemi Jamali, confirmed that the deaths had occurred due to heat-related diseases.
An intense heatwave gripped the port city on Saturday and Sunday while the residents grappled with frequent power outages and water scarcity on Sunday. The temperature rose to 46 degrees Celsius on Saturday, just short of an all-time high in the city of 47C in June 1979.
Officials said that all the deaths had occurred since Saturday evening.The Meteorological Department said that the high temperature was likely to subside in the coming days, but doctors advised the people to avoid exposure to the sun and wear light cotton clothes.
The high temperatures were made worse by frequent power outages, sparking protests in several parts of the city.
Electricity cuts in turn crippled Karachi’s water supply system, hampering the pumping of millions of gallons of water to consumers, the water utility said.The Karachi University in a statement said that it had postponed its exams for at least one month due to the extreme weather.
Meanwhile, as many as 150 bodies had been shifted to Edhi’s morgue in the past 24 hours.According to a senior officer at Edhi, the administration decided to bury at least 30 abandoned corpses at the Edhi graveyard due to lack of space.
Intense hot weather, old age and different diseases had been reported as the cause of their deaths, the Edhi Foundation confirmed.Meanwhile, despite tall claims made by the incumbent government regarding the incessant power supply during Ramazan, various areas across the country plunged into darkness at Sehr and Iftar on Sunday.
The people took to the streets to protest against the unscheduled and unannounced power outages.In Multan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) workers held a demonstration at the MDA Chowk, which was also attended by a huge number of citizens. The protesters, while holding banners, placards and hand held fans, chanted slogans against the government.
In Multan, the people burnt tyres and raised slogans against Wapda and the government while protesting. Also, prisoners chanted slogans while standing on the barrack roofs when the transformer of the jail became out of order.
Various areas of Hyderabad including Lateefabad, Paredabad, Pakka Qila, Gari Khata, Resham Gali and Shahi Bazaar are facing power cuts from 4:00am.
On the other hand, residents of Lahore and Karachi had to go through a blackout on the third Ramazan at Sehr time. Owing to technical faults, Lines Area, Gulshan Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Johar, Federal-B Area and Landhi and various other areas of Karachi went through prolonged power suspension.
The K-electric authorities stated that teams had been formed to correct the faults.In Lahore, loadshedding could not be prevented in the areas of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Mustafa Town, Thokar Niaz Baig and Shalimar.
Earlier, in Peshawar’s area Armar, citizens besieged the Wapda House under the leadership of forest minister.
Moreover, distressed by the prolonged power outages, residents took to the streets in protest against the government in Sukkur, Toba Tek Singh, Pangrio, Tahrparkar, Uch Sharif, Zhob, Larkana and other cities.
Protests are also underway in various cities against the unannounced loadshedding which has created severe problems for those fasting.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif warned the electric supply companies that he would not tolerate power outages during Ramazan.
Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif said that the people were protesting against loadshedding in some parts of the country because collection of bills had plummeted there. He said in some areas, people did not pay their bills and the government could not supply electricity to such areas.
He expressed these views while talking to Geo News. He said demand for electricity rose with the advent of Ramazan. He said the demand had risen to 21,000MW since the first day of Ramazan.
He said the government was doing its best to control the loadshedding. He said supply of electricity to industry was stopped from 7:00pm to 4:00am during Ramazan so that people were not affected by loadshedding at the time of Sehr, Iftar and Taraveeh.