SUKKUR: All cities, towns and villages of the Sukkur region of the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) experienced power outages of 10 hours on Tuesday which disturbed Independence Day events at various educational institutions as well as public and private organisations.

Sepco has been carrying out 10 hours of loadshedding a day in several spells for long and it was presumed that no loadshedding would be effected on Tuesday to avoid any disruption in the Independence Day events.

However, there was no let up in the loadshedding regime on the day in the power utility’s region on Monday night and Tuesday.

In addition to the loadshedding, citizens of Sukkur city also experienced frequent outages on account of tripping of the network and local faults.

Complainants approaching the utility’s offices told the staff that repeated power cuts and breakdowns were causing damage to their domestic and commercial appliances.

When contacted at 8.30pm on Tuesday, an official of the power dispatch centre (PDC) in the city told Dawn that there were no instructions from the top Sepco officials regarding any relief to be provided to consumers in the loadshedding regime on Independence Day.

Reports from different areas suggested that the loadshedding and breakdowns disrupted scheduled Independence Day programmes at various places.

“No exemption was, therefore, effected,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2018