Pakistan: Power outages hit country hard

DAILY TIMES

Unannounced load shedding continued across the country on Sunday despite the government’s claim that power generation has been increased. Unscheduled power outages were reported in various cities, including Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Hyderabad and Multan, although the government had said there would be no power cuts during sehr, iftar and taraveeh timings. In Lahore, people in Karim Park, Kasurpura, Ravi Road, Misri Shah, Bhaati Gate and Lohari Gate faced inconvenience during sehri time due to the intermittent power supply. A similar situation was reported in Karachi’s several areas, including Ahsanabad, Gulshan-e-Maymar, Surjani Town, Buffer Zone, North Karachi, New Karachi, Gulshan-e- Iqbal and Malir. People in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat, Kohat and other cities also had to brave incessant power cuts throughout the day. Responding to the situation, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announced it would hold protest demonstrations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) from today (Monday). KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak would lead the protests from July 15, PTI MPAs, led by Ziaullah Afridi, told a press conference. They said that although KP was the “largest power producing province in the country”, it was being discriminated against with regard to supply of electricity. Qaumi Watan Party leader Sikandar Sherpao also expressed his concerns over unscheduled load shedding in KP and said people would be compelled to take to the streets if the situation was not improved. “We will also be compelled to lead protests against power outages,” he remarked in a statement. Meanwhile, Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif said that shortfall of electricity had been reduced to 3,600 megawatts. “Technical reasons are to be blamed for load shedding during sehar and iftar timings,” the state-run radio reported him as saying. He said that duration of load shedding was more in those areas where people did not pay electricity bills. Asif said the government was increasing the power supply but there must also be some efforts on part of consumers to conserve power. He added Rs 360 billion circular debt had also been cleared. agencies