Lahore consumers face outages despite Lesco zero loadshedding claim
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LAHORE: Though the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) claimed ending the loadshedding, many consumers in urban and rural areas falling in the limits of the company complained on Thursday they were still enduring power outages.
Lesco management claimed to have observed zero loadshedding, except the localities falling in the areas of loss-making feeders, after receiving power supply from the national grid as per its actual demand.
But, consumers complained about forced loadshedding for one to two hours in urban and more than this in rural areas. They also complained of squeezed water supply due to the non-operation of tube-wells because of the power load management.
A Lesco insider confirmed observance of loadshedding even in the areas falling within the service limits of the feeders making no losses.
“The loadshedding in our area continues. And it was also observed for almost two hours on Thursday,” a consumer residing in Johar Town told Dawn. However, he said that the duration of forced load shedding has reduced considerably.
A consumer from Green Town also complained about two-hour loadshedding—for one hour in the morning and then in the evening, on Thursday.
According to a resident of Kasur city area, forced loadshedding was observed for around one-and-a-half hours (3pm to 4:15pm) on Thursday. “But, previously, we were facing three to four hours loadsheddig daily in our area,” he maintained, adding that the Kasur rural areas are still being subjected to four to eight hours loadshedding daily.
Similarly, a resident of Batapur, Lahore, said the area was facing loadshedding for four to five hours daily.
A Lesco spokesperson had on Tuesday claimed observing zero-loadsedding after the company received power supply as per its demand. However, the spokesperson admitted loadshedding for three to six hours on the high-loss feeders.
However, both the Lesco chief executive officer and spokesperson were not available for their comments despite repeated calls made by this reporter.
Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2026
