SAHIWAL, April 27: Mepco has made it a routine to subject people to a five-hour unscheduled loadshedding daily. Wapda operation manager (SE Sahiwal circle), however, claimed that the outages were part of ‘load management’ by the utility.

Reports said, besides Sahiwal, the five-hour power closure was also being carried out by Mepco in the areas of Chichawatni, Arifwala, Pakpattan, Kassowal, Noorshah, Kamir and Ghaziabad etc.

Circle manager Abdul Ghafoor Cheema told journalists on Thursday the closure was being carried out on the direction of the Wapda chairman and could not be termed loadshedding.

He said due to a sudden rise in the Mercury, the power use had increased manifold, and to save grid stations from the damage these closures were necessary.

Mr Cheema said Mepco was increasing the capacity of Yousafwala grid station by 2008, after which loadshedding would be curtailed in the area.—Correspondent