A hungry man is an angry man

Prolonged electricity outages amid extreme humid temperature in Ramadan have forced the patience of the people to run out and desperate citizens continued with their full-forced violent protests against the government’s failure to ensure electricity supply as promised for the second consecutive day.
Angry protests were staged in almost all major urban centers of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, where people braved humid conditions and went on rampage to record their anger with the government. Traders in Charsadda went on a complete strike by shutting down their shops and businesses on a call given by Charsadda Anjuman-e-Tajiran, with the protesters blocking Tangi Road for sometime by burning tyres. In Nowsehra, residents braved 18 to 20 hours of load shedding that has also led to a shortage of water in the area. An infant was killed on Sunday during a traffic jam during load shedding protests in Shangla. Meanwhile, FIRs were registered against 400 people who staged demonstrations in Tandiawala area in the outskirts of Faisalabad on Saturday.
Besides Punjab and KP, Sindh’s urban and rural areas are also being subjected to 12 to 14 hours of power outages that have paralyzed routine life and wrecked trade and industry across the province. The situation in Balochistan is no better, with domestic and commercial customers suffering 16 to 18 of load shedding. On Sunday, citizens again took to the streets and roads in anger against blackouts at Sehr and Iftar timings. The current wave of massive outages is being attributed to technical faults in Chashma power plant followed by damages to transmission lines of Muzaffargarh and Lalpir power plants by a wind and rain storm that reduced power supply by 1,350MW.
The electricity demand has gone up to 18,000MW, while the production is still hovering around the 13,000MW mark.
During demos on Sunday in Pakpattan, people took to the streets and blocked for several hours during the day. Police later baton-charged the protesters and used tear gas to disperse the crowd, forcing demonstrators to hurl bricks at the cops, injuring four of them.
In Multan, load shedding-marred masses blocked roads by burning tyres and chanting slogans against the government.
In Lahore’s Dharampura area, residents danced to the beat of drums to protest outages of electricity, gas and water. They also chanted slogans against government, just like the residents of Shahdara, who blocked the GT road by burning tyres in protest against long hours of power shutdown. In Iqbal Town, residents of Ravi Block protested against a lack of power in the locality for the last four days. In Sheikhupura, protesters blocked the Lahore-Faisalabad Road, as angry demonstrators in Tandlianwala broke the windscreens of a police mobile van. In Jehlum, protesters blocked the GT Road in protest against power outages at Sehar and Iftar time and also attacked a grid station, though causing no serious damage. Chakwal’s residents were also not far behind, staging protest rallies in all major and minor towns of the district. In Peshawar, protesters wielding sticks attacked a WAPDA vehicle and broke its windscreen. In Shabqadar, demonstrators pelted stones at a grid station, forcing police to resort to aerial firing to disperse the protesters. Locals said About 290 factories in Shabqadar, Swat and rest of KP were facing closures as their administration was finding hard to continue work due to chronic load shedding, leaving more than 100,000 people unemployed. The Tribal Areas also had no respite from power outages, as tribesmen in South Waziristan Agency decried prolonged load shedding and demanded the government ensure proper supply of power to the area. The tribesmen warned of blocking the Wana-Dera Ismail Khan-Balochistan Road if load shedding was not controlled. A tribesman said the PPP’s slogan of providing food, cloth and shelter had been buried along PPP leaders, adding that the current government was bent upon snatching bread from the hands of masses. A spokesman of the Energy Management Cell in Lahore on Sunday said the power shortfall in country during last 24 hours had swollen to 5,139MW, while the total power production stood at 13,275MW. However, reports said the Chashma nuclear power plants I and II had resumed generation of 650MW of electricity that would likely provide relief to the consumers. Minister for Water and Power Ahmad Mukhtar on Sunday directed authorities to repair damaged transmission lines on an emergency basis.
Mukhtar said the government was taking all measures to reduce load shedding in the country, adding that load shedding was being conducted on an equal basis across the country.