LAHORE, May 21: Unscheduled power outages have rendered hundreds of skilled people almost idle, making it very difficult for them to make both ends meet.
“Tum ne abhi tak meray suiton ka over-lock nahin kia? Paanch minute ka kam hai. Subha se mera tesra chakkar hai. Suit wapas kar do. Mujhay bachon ko laine school bhi jana hai. (You haven’t completed over-lock of my clothes yet. It’s a five-minute job. This has been my third visit since morning. Return the clothes to me, I have to pick up the children from school,” demanded a furious customer of a tailor at the Dopatta Gali of Liberty Market.
“Baji! Aap ke samne hai. Subha se bijli naheen hai … (Sister, you know there has been no electricity since morning…), the shopkeeper attempted to pacify his customer but she insisted and took away her clothes.
Such incidents have become order of the day for tailors and embroiders at Gulberg’s main market, Ichhra, Rang Mahal, Moon and Karim markets of Iqbal Town as they cannot afford power generators.
“We are skilled people. We want to work, earn and feed our families. But if the spate of outages continues for another couple of days, we will be left with no option but to seek alms,” said tailor Jameel.
“It is useless to take to the street. We have done so in the past. The situation improved a little for a few days and then again back to square one,” he maintained.
A puncture mender near Mozang Chungi was of the opinion that the rulers were bent upon getting rid of the poor instead of eliminating poverty. “It is easy to fix the tubeless tyres. I have started using an LPG stove to warm up the iron to mend the tubes of motorcycles and cars. But compressed air is required after fixing the puncture and the air compressor operates with electricity.”
Tool makers on Brandreth Road complained about another problem. “People in the adjoining congested localities switch on their air-conditioners whenever power supply is restored, resulting in considerable drop in voltage. Since heavy-duty motors are used in our machines, operating the same on low voltage is not possible as it causes damage,” said tool machine operator Khwaja Junaid.
Welders on Circular and McLeod roads too were worried about their livelihood like makers of wrought iron furniture on Bahawalpur Road and Gulberg’s Makkah Colony. “Customers do come but we cannot make a promise to deliver goods on a particular time and date. Power supply has become unpredictable and our whole work depends on it,” said owner of a furniture shop at Makkah Colony.
Unbridled loadshedding has also affected business of general stores and many a going concern has found its sales drastically dropping especially of frozen items, cold drinks and ice cream.