MULTAN, Oct 12: Entire southern Punjab is experiencing long spells of unscheduled loadshedding despite claims by the government and the Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) that there will be no unscheduled outages.

Although Mepco has raised the power tariff, it has no plan to check 8 to 18-hour loadshedding. As a result, urban residents and farmers of Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Muzaffargarh, Vehari, Pakpattan, Khanewal, Lodhran, Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah and Rajanpur districts are hit hard.

Citizens’ representative Tariq Naeemullah said potable water was the first casualty of the loadshedding. He said Mepco authorities should check the unscheduled loadshedding otherwise people would not pay electricity bills. He alleged Mepco was overcharging its consumers.

Muhammad Ateeque, a Bahauddin Zakariya University student, said it was difficult to sit in classrooms in the absence of electricity. He said study timings were also hit by loadshedding.

Adeela Ikhlaq, a BZU hostel boarder, said students had no choice but to study in candlelight. “The situation worsens when hostels run out of water at night and girls cannot go outside to get even drinking water,” she added.

Farmers’ representative Ghulam Mustafa Qaisrani said loadshedding was badly affecting wheat sowing.

He said the Kot Qaisrani Feeder, which was exclusively meant for farmers, remained without power for 18 hours a day.

He said farmers would block Indus Highway if Mepco did not check loadshedding within a week.

Sabahat Nasreen, a housewife, said whenever Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited his hometown he directed Mepco to check loadshedding, but the power company was doing nothing in this regard. She said the prime minister should not visit his hometown if he was helpless against Mepco authorities.