Protests over power, gas outages

The Frontier Post

People belonging to all strata of society, from ordinary citizens to businessmen and industrialists, have suffered immensely from scheduled and unscheduled electricity load shedding for the last few months. People were expecting improvement in functioning of the government and they had hoped that the elected government would arrange to provide essential commodities and utilities at reasonable prices. But their hopes have been dashed to the ground, as they suffer power outages from 16 to 20 hours a day. Having lost hope and patience, they have come on the roads. Protests were held against unprecedented power and gas load shedding across the country on Saturday as the crisis assumed an alarming proportion. In all major cities of all provinces, people staged protest demonstrations. In the Punjab, traders, labourers and civil society members among the public at large marched across a number of cities in protest against the continuing power and gas outages, with some demonstrations turning violent on Saturday. A shutdown was witnessed in Faisalabad on the appeal of the Anjuman-e-Tajiran and dozens of other traders' associations. A group of industrial workers tried to damage a Millat Road bank but went away after the bank guard fired warning shots. However, an angry mob stormed the FESCO office in Gulistan Colony and set ablaze the office record. In Lahore at Macleod Road, traders staged a demonstration against rulers, WAPDA and SNGPL over the long outages. They burnt tyres at Laxmi Chowk and blocked the traffic for more than an hour. They chanted slogans against Lesco, SNGPL and the Petroleum Ministry over the power shutdown, shortage of CNG, Sui gas and petrol. The protesters kept the Ferozpur Road blocked for about two hours, much to the inconvenience of commuters. Then the demonstrators headed to the WAPDA office and pelted it with stones. Before they could enter the office, the staff present there escaped, leaving the office and the main gates locked. In September, apart from power outages, unexplained additions in the electricity bills had stirred up public indignation and there were mass protests over outages and over-billing in various cities of the country. The Ministry of Water and Power had promised that it would launch various units that would add 2200 megawatts of electricity to the national grid in the current year, which will ease the situation. It however appears that nothing has been done so far, and the plan of importing generation units on barges from Turkey also remains on paper, as the load shedding has increased from 12 to 20 hours. During the previous demonstrations, the government had smelled a rat and held the view that that there was a conspiracy behind the sudden spiral of anti-WAPDA protests that became particularly violent in the Punjab. Even now there is a perception that Faisalabad being the stronghold of the PML-N, its leaders might have sparked the demonstrations. Instead of subscribing to conspiracy theories, the government should have investigated the matter as to why there were additions in the bills, which could not be explained. Later the government had promised to adjust overcharging in the next month's bills, which has not been done and the people are running from pillar to post to get their bills amended. People expect from the government that it will reduce prices of oil and electricity especially when the price of oil has declined in the international market from $147 to $37 per barrel. But Advisor to Prime Minister Shaukat Tarin said on Saturday that the government had already lowered petrol prices by Rs 30 per litre, and the government would pass on the reduction in oil prices to consumers "at an appropriate time", which is unfair. It should immediately reduce the price of petroleum products commensurate with reduction in oil price in the international market.