Power cuts darken cities and towns in Ramadan

Power cuts continued in several cities and towns in all four provinces of Pakistan despite the government's assurances not to resort to load-scheduling during the holy month of Ramadan, a media report said yesterday. Protests were held in many cities against the power outages despite government assurances of uninterrupted power supply, especially at sohour and iftar, the Urdu daily Jang reported. The power cuts lasted 12 to 18 hours in most cities, and even for 20 hours at some places, forcing people to scramble around in the dark for the pre-fast meal. Larkana town of Sind observed a protest shutdown, with all business and commercial establishments and even petrol vends closed. Resentment was also brewing in other towns such as Hyderabad, Mirpur Khas, Nawabshah and Sukkur where long and unannounced power cuts were reported throughout the day and night. In Punjab province, long hours of outages were reported from Lahore, Multan, Faislabad, Gujranwala and Sargodha, while in Balochistan electricity remained truant most of the day in Quetta, Chaman, Nasirabad and Zhob. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, cities that suffered long hours of power cuts included Peshawar, Swat, Naushera and Mardan. Double blow The hike in prices of petroleum products coupled with the increase in the electricity tariffs is a double blow to the people, said a Pakistani daily. Petroleum product prices were hiked ranging from Rs1.09 (Dh0.05) to Rs5.34 per litre. There has also been a Rs1.05 increase per unit in power rates. Describing it as "a twin blow" to people, an editorial in the News International yesterday said: "It can only add to the many hardships people already suffer. "It is ironic that this increase comes at the start of the month of Ramadan when budgets are already stretched in virtually every household." The editorial asked why "people should pay the price for the government's inability to effectively generate revenue from other sources". "The dual hike in fuel and power prices will hit hard. It will also mean an increase in the cost of other commodities as transport costs go up. People are already struggling to manage. Their battle will grow tougher still with these new measures."