Power failure hits Punjab

Restaurants, hospitals, banks all affected by shut down

LAHORE: Power failure suspended routine life in the most areas of Punjab KP. Prolonged power outages caused water shortage in most urban areas. In the provincial capital, several restaurants had to suspend their business due to the lack of drinking water. There was also no water for hand of dishwashing.

The loss of power also multiplied patients’ and attendants’ miseries in both public and private hospitals in the provincial capital and other cities. Backup power generators of these hospitals ran out of fuel after couple of hours. The medical officer of a public hospital revealed that they had to cancel most operations scheduled for Wednesday. “We have limited fuel stocks so the management has decided to save available stock for an emergency situation,” he added.

The prolonged power outage also suspended commercial banks’ operations in most cities. Speaking to The Express Tribune, a citizen Muhammad Nawaz said that he had visited three different bank branches to withdraw money from Automated Teller Machine (ATM), but all in vain. “I believe ATMs of most commercial banks have been shut down due to the power failure,” he maintained.



The power failure also affected the proceedings of the provincial assembly. Opposition members registered their protest against the government’s failure to fix power system of the country.

Another citizen, Shoaib Khan, highlighted that the school of his children had been closed early owing to the power failure. Criticising the government and energy managers of the country, he underscored such massive power failures had been frequent from the past couple of years. “These power failures clearly indicate the deteriorating state of power sector in the country and put question mark on tall government claims and performance of the energy managers,” he said.

The trial run of the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) was also affected due to major power breakdowns. At one stage, authorities had decided to postpone the metro train inauguration ceremony due to the power cut. Later, it was decided to energise the event and trail run of the metro train through generators.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2018.