Up to 20 hours of power cuts testing people’s patience

The power crisis continues to plague the country, as the electricity shortfall has again soared to 7,500MW.
Residents remained without electricity overnight in several cities across Pakistan and were being subjected to load shedding of up to 20 hours a day.
The situation in the rural areas of the province has become even worse, with some areas being denied electricity completely. Residents of Islamabad also suffered from prolonged and unannounced load shedding on Friday.
According to PEPCO, IPPs had not been supplied oil and gas by the Ministry of Water and Power, which was why their production had decreased.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has repeatedly stated that resolving the power crisis was the top priority of his government, while President Asif Ali Zardari directed the minister concerned during an emergency meeting a couple of weeks ago to take immediate action and bring an end to unscheduled load shedding.
According to sources, the current production of electricity is 10,000MW, while the demand had reached 17,500MW with the rise in temperature. The distribution companies are facing problems managing the schedule of load shedding, as they have no choice other than to resort to unscheduled power outages.
Officials concerned have warned the federal government that the problem had the capacity of paralyzing the entire system if it was not checked.
Intermittent protests against load shedding continued in parts of Punjab on Friday. People were seen complaining about the government’s inaction over the issue and its false promises.
“Do the people need to take to the streets for even basic facilities such as electricity?” asked a shopkeeper visibly perturbed by outages. “The government corrects the power supply whenever people resort to violence or protests… I think people should stop working and only protest all day to ensure better supply of electricity,” he said.
“The leaders don’t care because they themselves live in unimaginable luxuries. And then they claim of being one with the people, they are just liars,” a student at a university said after attending a two-hour lecture without electricity.
“The rulers are always claiming to be securing the youth’s future; sadly all that the country’s youth thinks nowadays is when will they have electricity to put their mind to studies peacefully,” he added in frustration.
“The power crisis is making everyone hopeless about the country and its future, everyone wants out, everyone wants the exploitation from politicians and rulers to end. People are getting sick of democracy and these so-called elected representatives who claim to understand the masses,” said a teacher at a private tuition academy.