The authorities at the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) seem unmoved in the wake of strong public resentment against unscheduled hours’ long power outages, particularly in Punjab. The apathy of the IESCO administration has sparked the anger of traders’ community and common residents of the federal capital as well.
Sharing their grievances with Pakistan Today, the residents of different areas of the city complained that they could not even sleep during at night because they had no electricity to ward off mosquitoes, the main source of spreading the deadly dengue virus.
Anwar, a resident of Sadiqabad, blamed the government for the prevalent energy crisis. He said despite repeated power tariff hikes, the end of outages was still not in sight. Many residents were of the view that government departments were also responsible for the power outages because they did not pay their bills which caused huge loss to the electricity companies, hampering their generation capacity.
The apathy of the IESCO high-ups is also causing huge losses to the business community and creating nuisance for people.
Water shortage is another byproduct of the power crisis as residents of most of the localities in the capital are getting water in trickles.
“Most of the time, water supply to our flats remains suspended,” said Hasan Chugtai, a resident of G/9. He said it had become difficult to live in such circumstances. “We do not know in which direction our country is moving but one thing is clear that the lethargic attitude of the country stakeholders is the root cause of all these conditions,” he observed.
CDA’s Water Supply Directorate head Shahid Mahmood told Pakistan Today that the CDA had installed tube-wells in different sectors. “But due to unscheduled loadshedding, it has become impossible to run these tube-wells to built up a water pressure needed to supply water to consumers,” he informed.
The business community is the sector most affected by the power outages. Several traders, while talking to Pakistan Today, expressed their anger over the government’s failure of the government to ensure smooth power supply. Kamil Hussain, the owner of a construction firm, said they had been facing enormous business losses due to power outages since they need continuous water and electricity supply at their construction sites.
“If the government could not control the power cuts, it should resign at once,” he said. Zaighum Fraz, a shopkeeper at the Super Market, said that the outages from 8pm to 11pm were unjustified and that showed government’s apathy towards the trading sector.
“We cannot run generators as it costs 30 to 40 rupees per unit, which is unaffordable,” said Ahmad Raza, another shopkeeper, adding that the government should overcome the energy crisis at the earliest.
Trader Welfare Association Blue Area President and FPCCI Chairman (P&R) Malik Sohail Hussain said the local industry of the country had come to a halt.
“The steel industry has been facing immense problems because they cannot run their kilns due to unending outages,” he said.
He was of the view that the IESCO had failed to stop power pilfering which was the main cause of power shortage.
The traders and people of the capital warned of widespread protests against power outages if the situation was not improved.
