The prolonged load shedding hours are not only keeping the electric appliances off but are also killing normal life in the provincial metropolis. But this is not where it stops, psychologists have warned of dire consequences if the level of frustration and helplessness continue to soar.
Heat, outages and blocked roads are hampering people from performing their normal every day chores, so much so that many have been rendered impossible of doing a thing as simple as reaching another place in the city.
Helpless protesters, who burn tyres and break things, block the roads which their own fellow citizens have to use. Apart from this, power outages also mean that the traffic signals remain closed, resulting in long lines of traffic on the city’s main arteries, not the mention the fact that many of the city’s main roads are still under construction.
Umair Khan, a university lecturer, remained stuck for two hours in traffic mess at Thokar Niaz Baig caused due to a protest against power outage. Sharing his experience, he expressed anger at the federal and provincial governments for their inability to manage the affairs of the country properly. “I had to reach my university to take a class on Raiwind Road and I have been receiving calls from the admin. My class was at 2pm and I reached there at 3:10pm,” he said, adding “they want to bring a revolution in education and health when it is not even possible for people to reach their required destination on time.”
Fizza Batool, a working woman, failed to pick her children from their school due to the blocked roads from her office to school. Talking to Pakistan Today, she said her children, aged 4 and 7, had to stay in school alone for several hours after their classes and when she reached almost all the students and teachers had gone. She was of the opinion that it was a cat fight between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party and the latter had deliberately deprived Punjab of electricity to harm the Punjab government.
Many like Umair and Fizza could not reach to their appointments, offices, homes and hospitals on time owing to the far reaching aftermaths of load shedding.
“This country is heading no where, nor are the people,” said Ghufran Raheem, a rickshaw driver, adding “slowly but surely it is coming to an end.” “It is a shame that the rulers can only concentrate on their publicity stunts and not really care for the people,” said Rahmat Bibi, a lady health worker.
“All my friends and I, we are studying to get out of this godforsaken place. I mean, what kind of future can one have here where people have to fight for a thing as basic as electricity?” asked Asad Barkat, a student, adding “yes we can all sing the national anthem on August 14 and enjoy when we win an Oscar or when we make the world’s largest flag. But these things mean nothing in the day-to-day life. It’s the day-to-day life that determines who we are not these rare awards, and at day-to-day life, we are failing.”
“The politicians are sitting in their ivory towers they can never relate to what these people on the roads are feeling,” said Aasia Mujtaba, a psychologist, adding “You have to understand what would be going through a person’s mind when they smash a car’s screen or throw stone at the police. Think how desperate you would be that you are forced to take this step.”
“Who knows, I could be one of the protesters setting things on fire, you could be with me too. They are people like us, driven by circumstances to do what you and I watch on TV and go all ‘oh my God’ at,” she said, adding “it’s their tipping point, soon, we could reach ours too.”
“The children and youth, they are the ones who are suffering the most. If you hear all adults around you cursing and getting frustrated all the time, you will just not learn how to hope. Hope would be far-fetched idea to you, something that you have never seen working. These children and youth are being deprived of their dreams, not just their jobs,” she added.
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams
