There were protests in many parts of the city due to prolonged load shedding while citizens also used social networks like Facebook and Twitter to register their protest. Yet again the city witnessed long hours of power closures paralysing routine life. The FB users also shared graphics and pictures depicting state of electricity in Pakistan.
The electricity in majority of the areas was closed early in the morning and it was restored during the afternoon. It was Sunday and power demand reduced sharply but even then there was no relief for the consumers.
Every nook and corner of the city was deprived of electricity for more than 16 hours. Business centres, shopping malls, banks, educational institutions and offices were closed because of Sunday but even then load shedding kept haunting the citizens. The power demand remained 13,500MW while the generation dropped to 7,000MW thus there was shortfall of 6,500MW.
The consumers staged protests at Walton Road, Mustafabad, Mughalpura, Township, Johar Town, Green Town and other areas. They were chanting slogans against Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) for depriving them off power. The protestors also burnt tyres and blocked the main roads. They demanded of the government to reduce the load shedding. The protestors also complained about excessive bills.
“The electricity was closed early in the morning and there was no power till noon,” lamented Atif Majeed a resident of Johar Town adding it has become routine that power was closed for more than three hours and restored for only one hour.
The consumers said the duration of load shedding was increasing with every passing day and there is no relief for the consumers.
“When this government took charge in 2008 then there was closure of half an hour. Later in 2009 the duration increased to one hour. Then in 2011, the power was switched off for two hours but now more than two hours of outages are carried out in one go,” said another consumer Amjad Ali adding it seems there will be blackout in the coming days.
The consumers also expressed their anger against the government and PEPCO for continuous load shedding. “Four hours rest after every hour. Hy Bijli,” says an FB user from Lahore.
“There will be all-out dark in the coming years,” shared another user. “Humaray bachay kahengy k kabhi Pakistan mae bijli b thee,” another user’s status say.
The surfers also shared pictures and graphics telling about the load shedding in Pakistan. One of such pictures tells that scene of night time in different cities and there was complete dark in the picture of Lahore.
Overseas Pakistanis also showed their surprise and anger over the load shedding carried out in Pakistan.
