Businesses all over the country have been forced to throw away perishable products or even to close as a result of the electricity shortages. Whereas residents are stewing in their homes without air conditioning.

The situation has become unbearable in the port city of Karachi where, on Monday night, youths took to the streets once again in protest, erecting blazing barricades and setting fire to a police booth.

The protests are concentrated against the local power plant -- the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) -- which was privatised in 2005.

The city's mayor, Mustafa Kamal, has sided with the protesters against the KESC and blamed it for not building extra generating capacity in time. He has called on the government for the company to be re-nationalised.