Contrary to the LESCOs claims promising no load-shedding during Iftar and Sehr, the city duly witnessed unscheduled outages at these times on Tuesday.
LESCO continued to test the faithful with repeated outages throughout the day. Consumers said that the Ministry of Power had lied for the past three years and had been hiding the true gravity of the power crisis.
Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) had promised no outages from 3am to 5pm and 6pm to 10pm. However, LESCO claims proved hollow and outages meant those offering Tarawih prayers faced problems. Outages remained high throughout the day, with consumers facing problems in preparing meals during Sehr and Iftar, as many areas remained without electricity.
All areas of the city including Gulberg, Township, Johar Town, Wahdat Road, Ichra, Shalimar, Cantonment, Baghbanpura, Gari Shahu and Walled City experienced power closure during Iftar and Sehr. Housewives said they were disappointed since load shedding made it almost impossible to cook food. “I have to prepare Sehri in darkness. The weather was hot and humid and it seems LESCO is adding to the test of our faith,” housewife Samia Sajad said, adding that there was no point appealing to LESCO, who was bound not to respond. Another consumer Javaid Bashir said that he knew the PEPCO MD’s promises would fall flat and there would be no relief during Ramadan. “The government does not care,” he said.
The electricity was closed for one hour after every hour throughout the day. There were also power failures during the Tarawih timings. With the city’s weather at the hot and humid due to the early morning rain, the repeated power closures made lives more difficult for those fasting.
“There was continuous power tripping during Tarawih times and people faced problems due to humid weather,” said Hasnat Ahmed who came to offer Tarawih in a Township mosque.
LESCO officials offered excuses once again. “Demand increased sharply during Sehr and Iftar timings and so we had to resort to load-shedding,” said a Township grid station official. “This was not load shedding, rather the result of technical problems.” The Green Town sub-division electricity was affected more since electricity closed at 6pm and was restored late night and consumers had to spend their night in miserable conditions. The sub-division officer (SDO) claimed there was a technical problem in the transformers and thus electricity was closed for ten hours.
The residents of the area said that this was LESCO Green Town division’s routine since they install out-of-order transformers and cause consumers’ problems.
Which government in Pakistan has ever fulfilled any of the promises that it's made time and again? We should not expect any politician worth his/her salt to do anything remotely beneficial for the country, it's just not in their psyche. They're all here to have a right royal time at our expense. Burgeoning foreign bank accounts, never ending overseas trips, official cars/houses, etc., you name it and they'll most likely have it !! Fulfillment of a promise is an unknown entity to a politician, like other hapless ones, such as: honesty, equality of law, good governance, etc.
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