RAWALPINDI, June 9: A protest rally and shutter-down strike organised by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) against electricity loadshedding will be held on Benazir Bhutto Road on Sunday.

The PML-N asked all its MPAs belonging to Rawalpindi to return to the district from Lahore after the budget session to bring maximum number of people to the rally to show the strength of the party after Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) held a public meeting in the city last month.

Interestingly, the home secretary had visited the city last week and requested the local PML-N legislators to cool down the angry people against loadshedding to avoid law and order situation.

But the ruling party in the province itself launched the protest campaign just to get political gains and utilise the high tempers of the people against the PPP-led federal government which has failed to resolve the energy crisis for the last four years.

The PML-N has also managed to include Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) in the protest. The chamber president on Saturday announced its decision to back the protest and said traders and industrialists would join hands with the PML-N in its protest against the energy crisis.

According to the party plan, the PML-N workers and supporters will take out the rally from Marir Chowk to Faizabad and close traffic on Islamabad Expressway and Benazir Bhutto Road. It also directed its traders association to shut their shops.

“We will stage a peaceful protest demonstration on Benazir Bhutto Road on Sunday, as electricity and CNG are vanishing from the country due to wrong policies of the federal government,” said former MNA Haji Mohammad Pervaiz, the PML-N general secretary, while talking to Dawn.

He said traders had been asked to open their business centres till afternoon and take part in the protest in the evening to avoid any untoward situation.

RCCI President Jawed Akhtar Bhatti said the shutter-down call had been communicated to the business community and they had been asked to reach Liaquat Bagh at 3pm. He said the energy crisis had destroyed the local industry and the business community was forced to come out against the non-serious attitude of the government towards the issue. — A Reporter