LAHORE – Citizens, already crushed by sky-rocketing inflation and shrinking incomes, had to face another torturous Sunday, as electricity and gas load shedding continued unabated, Pakistan Today has learnt. Despite being a public holiday, citizens could not get any relief despite the fact that all offices and educational institutions were closed.
Absence of two basic utilities spoiled the holiday of many consumers, who could not even cook food or wash clothes. Electricity was shut down continuously and outages of more than eight to 12 hours were witnessed. The Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) closed electricity for eight consecutive hours in many parts of the city making lives of consumers difficult. In many areas including Johar Town, Gulberg, Model Town, Garden Town, Faisal Town and others, electricity was closed for one hour after every two hours. Consumers said that their daily routine was badly disturbed due to power closure. “I used to wash my family’s clothes on every Sunday but due to electricity closure, I could not do so,” said housewife Maryam Akram adding that LESCO always issued such schedules for load shedding, which disturb people. Citizen Saleem Athar said that electricity consumption had fallen due to markets closure but even then LESCO could not provide any relief.
LESCO tortured citizens with load shedding under garb of technical repairs, as company officials tried to improve infrastructure and distribution of electricity. “Any inconvenience in this regard is regretted,” an official said. Gas pressure also remained very low in majority of areas and there was no gas for consumers in many localities. CNG stations also faced gas closures and motorists could not get gas during the whole day. Some CNG stations opened in the evening and long queues of vehicles were seen outside the stations. CNG stations would remain closed today (Monday) and Tuesday, which prompted motorists to fill their vehicles resulting in long queues.
“How ironic is that despite having huge gas reserves and biggest infrastructure of CNG stations in the world, we are running our vehicles on petrol,” said banker Sadeed Athar adding that it is failure of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) that it did not provide gas to CNG stations and domestic users. “I wonder where gas has gone, as neither domestic users nor CNG stations and industries are getting it,” said citizen Bashir Ahmed.
