It appears to be a summer worth not remembering. People across Punjab have been forced to take to the streets in simmering anger against record-breaking load shedding being conducted ever since the mercury shot up in the last few days.
The power shortfall has reportedly soared to 7,000MW and the government is resorting to more than 20 hours of load shedding in rural, and more than 18 hours in urban areas of the province.
To make matters even worse for the citizens, the federal government on Wednesday announced an increase of Rs 1.20 per unit in the power tariff in June. Only the other day, independent power producers (IPPs) invoked sovereign guarantees against the government after it repeatedly failed to clear their outstanding dues. They also warned of shutting down completely on May 10 if the money is not paid to them.
Meanwhile, violent and desperate protests against prolonged outages were staged in several cities including Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Multan, Sheikhupura, Mianwali, Phalia and Mandi Bahauddin.
A large number of industrial workers gathered in various localities of Faisalabad and shouted slogans against the government over its “anti-people policies”. They torched tyres on roads and staged several sit-ins. Enraged citizens also torched a motorcycle.
Similarly, a large number of people gathered in Kumharanwala Chowk in Multan and held a demonstration against massive load shedding.
Protesters complained that the scorching heat had made their lives miserable and the lack of water due to load shedding had added fuel to fire.
“Unscheduled load shedding continues for two to three hours at a stretch…the government has made our lives miserable,” said a protester.
Protests were also reported from Sialkot, Wazirabad, Jhelum, Chakwal, Bhalwal and several other cities and towns.
Citizens said more than 18 hours of load shedding in cities and between 20 to 22 hours in the rural areas had made life miserable. They said electricity was supplied for a few minutes after every two to three hours of breakdown and the supply was cut again.
“As a result, not only are we forced to bear the rising temperature, but water supply has also been badly affected,” said Haji Mujtaba, an elderly protester.
Businessmen said they too were suffering extensively due to load shedding.
The protesters said the PPP government had completely failed in overcoming the power crisis, rather the situation had gone from bad to worse and the circular debt had climbed to Rs 232 billion.
They questioned where the revenue generated from power consumption was going, as the government was increasing the tariff almost each month.
Hanif Mirza, a businessman, said the circular debt was on the up because of corruption in PEPCO and theft of electricity in Sindh, Balochistan and FATA.
“People in Punjab are paying their bills regularly and there is minimum theft of electricity, but they are being victimized by the PPP-led government,” he said. In Multan, a one-year-old child died due to extreme heat as the bus he was traveling in got stuck in a traffic jam caused by protest against load shedding. “Our Prime Minister is enjoying a pleasant trip to the UK, breathing easy and unworried in around 16 degrees of Celsius while we are reeling from the excesses of his government,” said Zohaib Malik, a motorist stuck in a demonstration in Shahdara, Lahore. On the other hand, the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) threatened the government with closing down businesses if it failed to control load shedding after paying up IPPs. LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said the LCCI was being forced by all trade and industry associations to give a call for an indefinite strike as the energy shortage had crippled their businesses.
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