LAHORE: Millions of the Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) consumers in rural areas across south Punjab are facing 12 to 14 hours of daily unannounced power outages for the last one month during the ongoing hot and humid spell, disrupting businesses, education and routine household activities of the residents.

Complaints have emerged from the villages and towns in Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan and Bahawalpur divisions, where Mepco consumers told Dawn that they had been facing power outages, mostly in spells of two to three hours daily.

Shahroz Akhtar, who runs a medical store in Alipur, says repeated outages have made it increasingly difficult for people to continue their businesses without uninterrupted power supply.

“There is hardly any electricity for most of the day. These prolonged outages make it hard to remain at the shop during the intense heat. Besides, the outages also damage the medicines that require refrigeration,” he says.

Mepco officials shift blame on maintenance work in flood-hit areas

Yaqoob Ahmad Lashari, a resident of Jatoi, questioned the prolonged outages on Rampur feeder, asking whether the interruptions were linked to excessive line losses or some other technical issue.

“Can anyone explain why there has been so much loadshedding on Rampur feeder over the past few days? If the outages are due to high line losses, where all that electricity is going?” he asked.

In Hasilpur, a resident, Shahid Khan, says unannounced loadshedding is severely affecting daily life. “Businesses are suffering, students cannot study and routine household activities have been badly disrupted because of prolonged power outages in extreme heat,” he says, urging the authorities to issue a regular loadshedding schedule if power cuts can’t be avoided.

Ishfaq from Layyah says people are facing loadshedding around the clock, which has made their life difficult. He says the businesses are suffering due to eight-hour loadshedding during daytime and sleep-depriving six-hour outages at night.

Residents from several other areas also deplore prolonged outages, saying electricity is frequently suspended for two to three hours at a stretch, adding that it has become a daily routine.

Alipur Mepco Executive Engineer (EXEN) Sanaullah Zafar denied that forced loadshedding was being carried out. He claims that the electricity supply had been temporarily suspended in certain areas to facilitate transformer installation and to ensure the safety of workers carrying out maintenance work.

However, when asked to specify the locations where transformers were being installed and the number of transformers being replaced, he could not substantiate his claim.

A senior Mepco official, speaking on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the media, alleged that the utility had received directions from the government to observe forced loadshedding and it had no authority to discontinue the practice.

Mepco spokesperson Jamshaid Niazi also denied that forced loadshedding was being resorted to.

“River flooding has affected several localities in the Alipur area. Daytime shutdowns are necessary to allow maintenance work safely, and transformer replacement work will be completed soon,” he said.

Federal Minister for Energy Awais Leghari could not be reached for his stance despite repeated attempts by this reporter.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2026