MIRPURKHAS: Prolonged power breakdown amid high levels of temperature and humidity in the wake of heavy rain brought normal life to a grinding halt and sparked protest in Mirprukhas and Badin districts on Saturday.

Power supply went off at around 7am in the morning in Mirpurkhas, sparking protests by wearied citizens who held a demonstration outside Hesco`s division office against unending loadshedding.

Enraged protesters wielding sticks raised slogans against the power utility outside the main entrance to the Hesco office, which was closed during the protest.

The protesters demanded restoration of power supply and immediate repair of faulty transformers.

They complained to journalists that over a dozen transformers had gone out of order.

In many cases, the officials had also received bribe from affected consumers for repairing transformers but did not do the needful, they said.

They blamed that duration of loadshedding had deliberately been stretched to 16 hours, which had seriously affected business activities amid sizzling heat. It had also disrupted water supply and caused shortage of drinking water in the city forcing people to purchase water cans for daily use, they said.

They demanded Hesco chief executive take immediate notice of the problem, reduce duration of loadshedding to six hours and stop issuance of detection bills.

In Badin, power went off with the first drop of rain and added salt to peoples` injuries amid sever heat in the wake of heavy rain a day before.