SUKKUR Oct 27: Hundreds of people, including traders observed ‘black day’ on Monday by taking out a rally and staging demonstration and a sit-in against prolonged power outages, inflated billing and hike in power tariff.

Protestors led by Haji Shafi Abbasi, Patron-in-Chief of Sukkur Small Traders Association, and Jawed Memon carrying banners and placards marched on streets from Sarrafa bazaar. They shouted slogans against Hesco and staged a protest demonstration and sit-in at the Clock Tower.

Leaders of various trade bodies condemned Hesco for prolonged power outages and excess billing. They said that the PPP government had subjected the nation to historic water and power crisis which had not only made the lives of people miserable but was also adversely affecting business. The claimant of providing “roti, kapra and makaan” had deprived their countrymen of water and power.

Speakers cautioned Hesco Sukkur to change its attitude or else consumers would be compelled to shutter down the city and observe hunger strike.

They demanded of the federal minister for water and power to step down as Wapda was a “white elephant.”

Protesters demanded of the president, prime minister and chairman Wapda to begin operations at thermal power station Sukkur and also asked Hesco officers to stop issuing excess reading bills.

Protestors set on fire their electricity bills.

WOMAN KILLED: A woman was gunned down by armed men over a matrimonial dispute in Rustam Ogahi village in Ghouspur police limits near Kandhkot on Sunday night.