Parts of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Jhelum will go without electricity for several hours on Sunday, 8 November, as the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) carries out another round of planned maintenance across its network. Most of the affected feeders will stay switched off from 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon, but a handful of areas face much longer interruptions, with the longest stretching to a full ten hours.
The shutdowns form part of IESCO’s annual maintenance programme, which also covers construction and development work and the upkeep of grid station transformers. The company has apologised to consumers for the disruption and asked for their cooperation while the work is under way. The same programme switched off power across the region on Saturday, 7 November, and earlier on 4 November.
Islamabad Operation Circle
In the federal capital, the outages reach across a wide spread of neighbourhoods, including F-6, G-6 and G-7, Tarlai, Rawal, Khanna Dak and Bara Kahu. Housing schemes such as Margalla Town, Orchard Scheme, Ghouri Town, Park Enclave and Bahria Enclave are all on the list, along with the IT Park, while feeders serving the PTET Tower, Comsats University, the Isolation Hospital and the Zong headquarters will also be switched off between 9am and 2pm.
Islamabad 132kV F-6 Grid Station
A separate set of feeders will go off for maintenance of the power transformer at the 132kV F-6 grid station, again from 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. This work reaches some of the busiest parts of central Islamabad, including Jinnah Super and its surrounding market, the Pak Secretariat, the State Life building, China Chowk and the Saudi Building, a portion of F-7 and Shamas.
Rawalpindi City Operation Circle
In Rawalpindi City, construction feeders in the Satellite Town division will be shut down from 9am to 2pm, covering Al-Noor Colony, the KRL Complex, the Air Force Officers Housing Society, Airport Housing Society and Holy Family Hospital. The schedule also names Khanna Road, Karimabad, Dhok Gangal, Babar Colony, Dhok Anwar and Saidpur Road, where the water works are located, along with the blocks around Dhok Paracha on Murree Road.
Rawalpindi Cantt Operation Circle
Rawalpindi Cantt carries the longest outages of the day. In the Rawat, Mandra, Chaklala, Cantt and Tariqabad areas, most feeders will be off from 9am to 2pm, but the Islamabad Feed Mill feeder near Baga Sheikhan will remain switched off from 7 in the morning until 5 in the evening, a full ten hours, while the New GHQ feeder will be off for eight hours, from 9am to 5pm. A second batch of Chaklala-area feeders, including those serving the JSHQ officers mess, Rehmatabad, Jail Park, Gulrez, the SPD offices, the PAF housing schemes, Askari 8 and 9, New Lalazar, Gulzar-e-Quaid, Murree Brewery, Noor Khan Base and Tahmasabad, will be off for a shorter three-hour window, from 10am to 1pm.
Attock Operation Circle
Attock escapes the round of feeder shutdowns this time. No 11kV feeder or grid transformer outage is listed for the Attock circle, so regular consumers there will not be affected. The only work listed for the area is maintenance on the Taxila-HIT 132kV transmission line, which will affect the HIT FECTO consumer grid from 9 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, a seven-hour window that touches an industrial consumer rather than homes.
Jhelum Operation Circle
In Jhelum, annual maintenance feeders in the Jhelum-I division will be off from 9am to 2pm, covering Abbas Pura, Kutchery, Ajmal Shaheed and Nougran. The affected streets include Aslami School, Dhok Muqarrab and Karim Pura in Abbas Pura, Aima Jattan, Mehmoodabad, Islampura and the District Court around Kutchery, and Bilal Town, Civil Line, Mohalla Shahpur and Muslim Town in the Ajmal Shaheed area, while the Nougran feeder covers Baga, Chak Isa, Lota, Raya, Bani and Chak Bedu.
IESCO publishes its shutdown schedules on its official website, iesco.com.pk, and on its official social media pages, and consumers can call the IESCO helpline on 118 for further information. The company says the sole purpose of these shutdowns is to let development projects being carried out by the district administration finish on time, alongside the routine servicing that keeps the distribution network running. Planned outages of this kind are a regular feature of the colder months, when demand falls and the utility can take feeders and transformers out of service for servicing that would be far harder to arrange in the heat of summer.
For households in the affected areas, the practical advice is the same as on the earlier shutdown days this week. Charge phones and power banks before 9 in the morning, keep drinking water stored where the supply depends on an electric pump, and avoid starting heavy appliances close to the switch-off time. Timings can shift if work overruns, so it is worth checking IESCO’s own channels on Sunday morning before assuming the power will return exactly at 2 in the afternoon.
