Public anger at power outages receded as the electricity shortage eased somewhat on Tuesday, but hundreds still protested in parts of the city.
Some 200 protestors blocked Multan Road with burning tyres and chanted slogans condemning the Lahore Electricity Supply Company in the biggest protest, at Gulshan-i-Ravi. Traffic was held up for some two hours during the protest.
Smaller groups of people marched from Rang Mehal to Shah Alam Chowk, causing minor disruptions to traffic, while the Tehreek-i-Insaaf organised a rally in Shahdara. The protests remained peaceful.
At Gulshan-i-Ravi, the protestors said that they believed that the destruction of public property in the previous two days of riots had forced the government to restore the power supply, and it was their responsibility to maintain that pressure on the government.
“How come they’ve managed to restore the supply in just two days? Do they have a magic wand? They just like to torture people,” said Junaid Alvi, a protestor.
He said that the reduced power outages on Tuesday had pacified the protestors. “But the government should not be fooled by one day of peace. If they subject us to the same torture again, we will come on the roads again,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 5th, 2011.
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