Pakistan: Load shedding rising as mercury goes up

Frequent unannounced prolonged load shedding and power outage has once again become a routine with the rising summer heat paralyzing commercial life and industry across the country, Geo News reported. Sources said with the onset of summer heat the consumption of electricity went up further increasing the gap between the generation and consumption of electricity in the country causing immense problem for the people besides water shortage in the rural and urban areas of Sindh and Punjab, where the people complained 14 to 16 hours of horrible power outage and load shedding they are forced to suffer in this scorching heat. People in Jamshoro have went on a shutter down strike in protest against the unannounced prolonged load shedding, while the citizens have staged sit-in on the Indus Highway. The business community in Faisalabad, Sargodha, Gujranawala, Gujrat and other industrial areas also incurring huge business losses due to prolonged power outage. Multan, Khanewal, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh ‘s rural and urban areas also facing 12/14 hours of load shedding. While the situation in Balochistan is no different as electricity goes off for two hours after every one hour forcing people to live even without water.