A vast area of the city remained without electricity on Wednesday as over 30,000 complaints of power breakdowns remain unattended by the Karachi Electric Supply Company, while no one within the utility seems to be prepared to own responsibility for the crisis.

The utility was still facing an approximately 500 megawatt shortfall as its flagship Bin Qasim Power Plant was only operating at half its optimum output, generating much below par

Rains in Karachi on Tuesday left seven people dead and several injured, while the entire power generation and distribution system of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) collapsed, plunging almost 85 percent of the city into darkness.

The heavy downpour led to tripping of major feeders supplying electricity to the city.

Two people were killed and over two dozen injured on Tuesday evening when a strong rain-bearing monsoon weather system hit Karachi, witnesses and hospital sources said. The year's first monsoon showers also wreaked havoc on the Karachi Electric Supply Company's frail distribution network, which was already reeling after it collapsed following a light drizzle late Monday night.

A 30-year-old woman was killed when the wall of her house at Pahar Ganj collapsed. The body was brought to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where she was identified as Sakina.

Speakers at a seminar on fisheries development stressed the need for streamlining the fisheries sector on modern lines by employing sophisticated machinery and latest technology to enable the country to compete in the international market.

The seminar on "Potential and Prospects of Fisheries Development in Sindh and Balochistan' was organised by the University of Karachi at its campus on Thursday in collaboration with the provincial fisheries department and the Fisheries Development Board (FDB). Balochistan Minister for Fisheries Hamal Kalmati was the chief guest.

Speakers at a one-day seminar titled

Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza, who also holds the portfolio of forests, has directed the forest secretary to intensify the efforts to check illegal felling of trees and illegal transportation of timber to protect forestry and environment.

The animal exchange programme between the Safari Park and the Karachi Zoo has once again come to an abrupt halt following the death of two red deer during their shifting to the zoo recently. The Safari Park authorities are now reluctant to hand over more animals to the Karachi Zoo unless the latter develops and implements a proper and standardised protocol for shifting of animals.

: Sindh Minister for Works and Services Manzoor Hussain Wassan has said that more than 20,000 acres of government land in Nara taluka was distributed illegally to different people by the previous government during the past seven years. He said the government would initiate an inquiry into the matter and action would be taken against those found involved in such acts. He was speaking at an open katchehry and talking to journalists at circuit house here on Monday.

: As a part of the ongoing polio virus control and environmental surveillance activities, the Sindh health department is considering a proposal to test sewage specimens to be collected from various parts of Karachi and others parts of Sindh. The samples are proposed to be examined in collaboration with certain national and international organizations to see if polio viruses were present. Sources in the health department said that the proposal was discussed at a meeting of senior representatives of international health organizations and the Sindh health department held here on Monday.

In its bid to persuade the city's inhabitants to happily accept the newly levied "public utility charges' and pay them regularly, the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has planned a "special cleanliness drive' in all the 18 towns of the metropolis.