President Asif Ali Zardari takes notice of prolonged power outages

President Asif Ali Zardari while taking notice of the prolonged loadshedding and widespread protests in the country summoned Petroleum Minister Dr. Asim Hussain and directed him to take immediate measures to overcome the crisis.

People across the country, particularly in Punjab, have been subjected to the worst form of power outage stretching up to 18 hours.

As the mercury soared across the country, prolonged hours loadshedding wreaked havoc with the people’s peace of mind and body throughout the past few days.

No respite was attained despite generators were reported to have run out of fuel and backup power supply in the form of UPSs were reportedly to have run out of steam in the wait for electricity to the restored.

According to the reports, far flung areas said rural centers had been provided electricity for a few hours in several days while many cities remained without power for up to 22 hours on Sunday.

The National Electricity Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) announced another increase in power tariff by Rs 1.98 per unit with effect from November 2012, increasing burden over the already hapless masses.

Annoyed and irritated citizens disregarded blistering heat and humidity to register their protests out on streets and roads. They set on fire many vehicles while ransacking public installations in major cities of the country.

They were of the opinion that they had been facing 20 to 22 hours of electricity load shedding daily and did not even have drinking water.

Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) Director General Ijaz Qureshi while speaking to the media, the ministries of finance and petroleum were equally responsible along with the company for power outages.

He observed, “The National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) had already warned the government that if the power crisis was not resolved, the electricity supply system would be rendered paralyzed in the next few days”.

In the meantime, officials said the demand for power had reached 18,396MW against generation of 10,421MW, saying required fuel and gas were not being provided to power houses, therefore, the generation of electricity had reduced.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jun 18 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.