Traders protest against long-drawn-out outages

A large number of traders and residents of Sector I/10 took to the streets on Friday to protest against unscheduled power outages for up to 10 hours a day. Unscheduled load shedding has been affecting the businesses of numerous traders whereas the government, contrary to its tall claims, has so far failed to overcome the electricity crisis in the country. The protestors marched from I/10 Markaz to IJ Principal Road, chanting slogans against the government.
Talking to Pakistan Today, I-10 Markaz President Chaudhry Kashif said that they had been facing load shedding for more than 10 hours for the last one week. He said that sector I/10-2 and I/10-1 had been getting electricity from H-10 and Pirwadhai grid stations, adding that on their request, IESCO had approved Rs 2.5 million to supply electricity to I-10/1 from the grid station in I-10/3 instead of Pirwadhai.
Kashif said that about 11 markets and 1,500 shops were present in Sector I-10 and they were bearing losses owing to outages. He said, “If the residents of sectors in F series can be exempted from power outages, why are residents of other sectors not treated in a similar manner. We will not allow anyone to discriminate against us,” said Kashif, He said load shedding was being carried out thanks to the corruption by senior officials although an electricity crisis did not exist in the country. The protestors warned that if the government did not address their sufferings, they would besiege the NPCC building. The situation is virtually the same in other commercial and residential areas of the capital city.
Abpara Market President Ajmal Baloch told Pakistan Today that despite their repeated demands from the government to end load shedding during peak hours of business, no action as been taken. He said the traders were the worst victims of load shedding as many of them had been forced to shut their businesses.
“A few months ago, the prime minister passed the order to close the markets at 8 pm daily but it was not possible for us to comply with his orders,” he said, adding the PM now adopted an unfair way of carrying out outages from 8 pm to 10 pm to implement his orders.
He said that government should divide the load shedding of two consecutive peak hours. “We are ready to face two-hour power outages during the day time instead of night,” he added.
IESCO Chief Engineer Operation Farmanullah said that the electricity shortage was the main reason behind the unscheduled load shedding. He said that they held a meeting with the traders and assured them to resolve their problems. “We are saving 15 to 20 megawatt electricity through load shedding in commercial areas,” he said, adding, “The government has issued directives for load shedding in commercial areas and it is our duty to implement the government’s orders.” He said load shedding would be rescheduled in the coming days.