RAWALPINDI, May 29: People in different areas of the city staged protest rallies on Tuesday against massive and prolonged loadshedding.  

The protesters, carrying placards and banners, and chanting slogans against the government, burnt tyres and other stuff and threw traffic out of gear.

In Westridge, more than 200 employees and owners of marble factories took out a rally against excessive power outages, which, they said, had made their life a hell. The call for the rally was given by Marble Factory Association Action Committee (MFAAC).

Led by MFAAC Chairman Shahid Mehmood, the rally started from Marble Factory Road and ended at Wapda office where they staged a protest demo.

Addressing the protestors, the office-bearers of the association said that Wapda was carrying out about 20-hour-long loadsheeding which had ruined their businesses. They said that those sitting in power corridors were busy in looting the national exchequer but not paying attention to the maladies being faced by industrial sector and general public.

Terming the protest as the beginning, Chairman Shahid if the government did not stop loadshedding, the factory owners and workers would not pay electricity bills and taxes.

The residents of Kuri Road, holding bamboo sticks, rods, wooden sticks, blocked airport road for hours by burning tyres. The protesters included old men, women, young girls and children. They chanted full throated slogans against the government.

To register their protest, the residents kept traffic blocked at Chakri Road for hours. They also burnt tyres at main road and threw traffic out of gear for at least two hours

They complained that they were unable to sleep during night due to load shedding. They said that their children could not go to school after spending sleepless nights.