SHEIKHUPURA, Oct 22: A large number of residents of Feroze Watwan and its adjoining localities on Wednesday blocked the Lahore-Faisalabad Road and threw traffic out of gear for three hours to register their protest against inflated electricity bills and loadshedding.
They also chanted slogans against the government, especially Water and Power Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, for what they called “enhancing power tariff without any justification”.
They also announced that they would not pay utility bills, which, according to them, were issued without proper assessment.
A police contingent led by SP Awais Malik reached there and made the protesters lift the blockade after assuring them that Lesco authorities would be persuaded to revise the tariff.
A protester, Zulqarnain Wattoo, said they were braving power outages up to 14 hours and it was unfortunate that they were issued hefty electricity bills. He demanded that Ashraf be sacked from the federal cabinet.
Similarly, scores of consumers, including women, staged a demonstration against excessive bills in front of Lesco office here on Wednesday.
The protesters blocked the Lahore-Sargodha Road and threw traffic out of gear for around two hours.
Rani Bibi, a general councillor, described the increased tariff “a death warrant” for the poor consumers.
The protesters tried to storm the Lesco office, however, a heavy police contingent stopped them from doing so. The protesters also announced that they would not pay the bills until they were not revised.
TOBA TEK SINGH: The city police on Wednesday registered a case against 70 people for ransacking the main grid station to protest prolonged electricity outages on Tuesday night. Seventeen of them were arrested soon after the demonstration.
The demonstrators have been booked under Section 440, 186, 148 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code for allegedly ransacking grid station, damaging equipment and taking the staffers hostage.
According to the FIR, around 70 people carrying sticks and rods stormed the grid station and broke down the equipment. They also occupied the control room of the grid station and threatened to set the grid station ablaze if power supply was not restored immediately.
Assistant Manager (Transmission) Sadiq Mushtaq called the police which arrested 17 demonstrators while the remaining fled. The protesters said that they were arrested without any justification as they went to the grid station to apprise the Fesco authorities of the hardships they were facing due to power outages up to 21 hours in some areas.
MULTAN: Traders demonstrated against hours-long loadshedding and excessive billing at Gool Bagh in Gulgasht Colony on Wednesday and shouted slogans against the federal minister for water and power and the Wapda chairman.
Office-bearers of Multan Tajir Itihad, Markazi Anjuman-i-Tajiran, Gulgasht Colony, and Anjuman-i-Tajiran, Bosan Town, organised the demonstration.
The protesters said that they had been suffering heavy losses due to inflation and loadshedding for up to 14 hours a day. They threatened that they would not pay the electricity bills issued according to the revised tariff.
They said that traders and shopkeepers had been forced to fire 50 per cent of their workers because they could not pay them their wages due to heavy decline in their businesses. The government needed to take prompt measures to provide uninterrupted power supply but it did not and instead issued them hefty bills.
Later, the protesters brunt the effigies of water and power minister and Wapda chairman.
FAISALABAD: Local industrialists, labourers and office-bearers of Anjuman-i-Tajiran have announced that they would stage a protest camp at the Clock Tower on Oct 25 against the loadshedding and inflated billing.
The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Anjuman-i-Tajiran president Shahid Razaaq here on Wednesday.
Participants in the meeting said hours-long power outages had perturbed every segment of society. The government must control the line losses and electricity theft to control loadshedding, they added.