People blame interim govt for prolonged power cuts in Lahore

Some citizens say PML-N leadership had almost eliminated loadshedding

LAHORE: People of Lahore are facing a lot of problems due to prolonged loadshedding of up to six to eight hours every day.

Although frequent breakdowns and spiraling power outages indicate gross mismanagement in power sector and incompetence of the outgoing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, a large number of people, especially who belong to the former ruling party, blame the interim government for their misery.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, a citizen Muhammad Arif claimed that the PML-N leadership had eliminated electricity loadshedding as it had increased power generation capacity of the country by around 10,000 MW. "The caretaker government is responsible for power outages in the country."



Another citizen, Sheikh Saleem, who was enjoying tea at a roadside tea stall, blamed the caretaker government for the situation.

He also highlighted that during the PML-N government there was no loadshedding in the country. "You have ousted Nawaz Sharif, put him behind bars and that's the main reason behind the loadshedding in the country," he said. He added that citizens in his neighbourhood are facing prolonged power outages just because of the negligence of the interim government.

On the other hand, PTI supporters claimed that the PML-N government failed to keep their promise to eliminate the menace of loadshedding from the country. A PTI supporter, Mudassir Chaudhry, said if the PML-N government has increased generation capacity or fixed power loadshedding issue then why citizens are facing scheduled and unscheduled power outage everywhere.

"Neither it is the fault of the interim government nor the PTI leadership that citizens have to face this problem. The PTI has not yet taken charge of the government affairs and it is beyond the scope of interim government to increase or decrease the power generation capacity of the country. The caretakers are here to look after the day to day affairs for the government and peaceful transition from one elected government to another," he underlined.

Power managers of the country highlighted that the PML-N had increased power generation capacity, but it failed to make requisite investment in aging transmission system of the country.

A senior official in the power sector said frequent power breakdowns indicate that transmission system is capable of handling increased power demand and supply. He, however, also dispelled the impression that the interim or the PTI governments have any role in power outages. The PML-N government was producing power by burning oil which resulted in around Rs1,000 billion circular debt while interim government curtailed oil supplies to power plants as they are here for a short period of time, he added.



On August 2, the city suffered prolonged power outages and frequent tripping as authorities had failed to completely fix a technical fault which emerged on August 1. The fault occurred at the Bund Road Grid Station.

The resulting breakdown had persisted for some 20 hours and that was the second-worst breakdown suffered by the provincial capital in the last two months.

Several neighbourhoods, including Township, Green Town, Allama Iqbal Iqbal Town, Johar Town, Sabzazar, Multan Road, Ferozepur Road, Wahdat Road, Muslim Town, Sanda, Sant Nagar, Karim Park, Shahdara, Bund Road, RA Bazaar, Ghazi Road and other adjoining areas remained in the dark. Locals claimed these areas faced frequent power outages due to the sheer negligence of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company and Lahore Electricity Supply Company.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2018.