Unscheduled load shedding in the city ruined the routine life as the Christian community faced huge problems in celebrating the much-awaited Christmas. The power outages started on Saturday evening and the power was closed for two hours after every one hour, which irked the Christian community that was celebrating the holy event. There was no power for three hours on Sunday after every one and half hour. All businesses, offices, banks, markets, institutions and industries were closed due to public holiday and demand for power was very low but even then LESCO deprived people of the electricity with repeated intervals. In many areas, the electricity was closed for more than four hours continuously. The electricity was also closed during the afternoon and night with regular intervals.
The Christian community showed its displeasure over the unscheduled load shedding and said Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) had ruined their festivities. They said coincidently, the Christmas was on Sunday, when the demand of electricity was less and people could easily be provided electricity. “There was no electricity during the night and I faced problems in celebrating the event and similarly there was no power during the day,” said Fayyaz Iftikhar. He said that LESCO should have given relief on this holy event. “Like Muslims, we also have equal rights and should be given a load shedding free day during our religious events,” he lamented.
The housewives said that they could not wash and iron the clothes. “It was weekly holiday and I have planned to wash clothes but due to continuous and long hours of power outages, I could not wash clothes,” said a housewife Kiran Naz, adding that unscheduled load shedding had played havoc with routine life.
