SUKKUR, Sept 30: Despite an announcement by Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaqat Ali Jatoi that load shedding throughout the country has been ended, it is tormenting the people of Sukkur and other parts of the interior Sindh from eight to ten hours a day.

The load shedding is causing inconvenience to industrial and urban areas of the city badly affecting industrial production and business activities. According to Sukkur chamber of commerce, the production of the industrial area had been reduced to half due to non-availability of power.

Hesco officials told Dawn on Thursday that no load shedding has been announced officially in urban areas of Sindh including Sukkur. He said it was being observed in rural areas to save the system from overloading.

He made it clear that if there was load shedding in urban areas, it was wrong and unjustified. He was not aware of announcement by the federal minister for water and power regarding ending of load shedding.

He said there was a shortage of power generation and the load shedding was inevitable. He said Hesco was facing a shortage of 94 mega watts and it varied from time to time particularly in the evening.

NAWABSHAH: Residents of various city areas are facing hardships due to unannounced load shedding by the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company. A Hesco official claimed that the company was forced to carry out load shedding in order to cover its line losses otherwise there was no technical reason for the shutdown.