The crisis, the worst in living memory, has caused massive discontent, with people unable to find gas for cooking, medicines, fuel and basic items of food such as milk powder because the country has run out of foreign currency to pay for imported goods.

The economic meltdown has left the city’s roads eerily empty as fuel pumps run dry. If residents can find petrol, the price has risen from 128 rupees a litre to 300 rupees.

With no air conditioners or fans, people are sweltering during the 10-12 hour power cuts. The government does not have the money to pay for the fuel needed by the power plants.

People with serious medical conditions are struggling to find medicines and hospitals have cancelled operations as they have no diesel to operate the generators that act as back-up during blackouts.

To save electricity, the government has switched off street lighting. Mobile phones have been affected because the standby generators used at the phone base stations have run out of diesel.

“We make sure we charge our phones during the hours we have electricity but the internet is very patchy because the towers aren’t working properly. Supermarkets are shut as they have no electricity for lighting or the freezer compartments and we are paying two to three times the normal price for basic food items,” tourism official Zainoor Adnan told the Guardian before the WhatsApp connection failed.