BAHAWALPUR: A protest demonstration was held at DIG Chowk against the Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) for prolonged loadshedding in the city.

A large number of affected people reached the roundabout from different areas of the city in the form of processions despite the scorching heat where they raised slogans against the federal and provincial governments.

The protesters said with the advent of Ramazan, Mepco had introduced the unscheduled electricity loadshedding while increasing duration of every outage. After over an hour, the demonstrators were forced by the high temperature to end their protest.

With the demonstration at the chowk, the traffic came to a half and motorists faced inconvenience.

SIALKOT: The Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) has increased the duration of power outages in Silakot.

There was a day-long loadshedding on Saturday in almost all urban and rural parts of Sialkot district which was stated to be the worst spell of power outage this summer.

The supply of electricity remained suspended from early morning till evening in all the urban and rural areas of Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur.

Several people reportedly fell unconscious while saying prayers in mosques due to suffocation, humidity and heat during loadshedding.

There is no letup in the miseries of the people who are having no electricity even at Sehr, Iftar and Taraveeh time. The urban areas of Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur tehsils are facing about 16 to 18 hours loadshedding while rural areas have to bear 18 to 20 hours without electricity.

The people also took to the streets to lodge their protest against the outages. They chanted slogans against the government for its failure to control electricity shortage and ultimate outages even in Ramazan.

On the other hand, Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Fazal Jilani told newsmen that in order to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity at Sehr and Iftar, the government had urged the Sialkot industrialists and exporters to halt their production from7pm to 04am during Ramazan.

He asked the Sialkot-based industrialists and exporters to extend their cooperation to the government by voluntarily closing their units during the above-mentioned hours.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2015

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