Lights out: Peshawar’s women remain sleepless, irritated

Power crisis has persisted throughout Ramazan, making life miserable

PESHAWAR: Ramazan has nearly come to an end, but unscheduled power outages are still the order of the day. The lives of locals have been made miserable in the absence of electricity for several hours a day.

Those suffering the most during this power crisis are women who are sleep deprived and rather irritated.

“My kids start crying when there is no electricity in this hot weather,” says Shumaila, a housewife. “It is unjust that Pesco takes electricity from us despite the fact that we pay bills on time.”

The mother adds the whole day is spent either washing clothes, dishes, preparing food or ironing clothes and she tries to finish all chores before the inevitable power failure.

There are about 20 hours of load-shedding in different parts of Peshawar and this has compounded the miseries of locals.

Even the presence of electricity can prove to be a menace as fluctuation and tripping have damaged expensive home appliances such refrigerators and air conditioners.

“Fasting in the month of June is not easy [in any case], but I think Pesco has made it mandatory for there to be no electricity – especially at the time of iftari and sehri” said Mobeena, a resident of Gulbahar.

“We bought a new refrigerator last year after saving money, but that also stopped working due to tripping,” she claimed.

The massive load-shedding has also caused water shortages.

Now many women and children from different areas bring cans filled with water from far-flung areas.

Jamili Bibi, a resident of Waliabad, expressed her disappointment when asked about the possibility for no load-shedding.

“It has become our destiny now. Our so-called leaders have failed to provide electricity despite making promises,” she concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2016.