LAHORE: Thousands of people travelling to their native areas suffered inconvenience on Friday night after protesters blocked the M-5 Motorway near Shah Rukn-i-Alam interchange against the Multan Electric Supply Company’s (Mepco) failure to restore electricity supply to nearby villages for the last four days.

Hundreds of residents of the villages deprived of electricity approached the M-5 Motorway near Shah Rukn-i-Alam interchange late on Friday night and blocked both sides of the road for traffic.

The protest continued till 10am on Saturday.

The protesters were chanting slogans against Mepco for failing to restore electricity in their localities for the last several days.

The motorway blockage caused inconvenience to the passengers travelling by buses and cars from Lahore to Sukkur, besides truckers carrying sacrificial animals. The traffic remained trapped for several hours.

According to Mepco sources, the electricity supply to several villages was disrupted due to uprooting of poles supporting the high-voltage wires and conductors during a heavy thunderstorm and rain hitting the area four days ago.

The protesters said despite repeated complaints, the Mepco administration turned a deaf ear to their grievance and took no action to restore the power supply.

During the protest, the motorway officials concerned kept diverting the traffic to alternate routes to save the passengers from inconvenience.

On being informed of the protest, Motorway SP Javed Iqbal Chadhur, DSP Hassan Bhatti, Mepco and district administration officials held dialogues with the protesters and convinced them to clear the road for traffic.

The Mepco Chief Engineer Maher Allah Yar Bharwana held an emergency meeting with his subordinates and directed them to immediately resolve the issue.

Later, the power supply was restores to the affected villages on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2022