Emeutes de l’électricité à Lahore, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Lilla, Multan, Qasur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Abbottabad…- 3 octobre 2011

Power riots engulf more cities, towns in Punjab

dawn.com

By Ahmad Fraz Khan

04 10 2011

LAHORE: The power generation system virtually collapsed on Monday with all major cities and towns in Punjab suffering up to 20 hours of loadshedding, leading to violent protests across the province.

The PML-N provided an impetus to the protests when its workers, as a matter of party policy, joined the demonstrations. MNA Hamza Shahbaz, son of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, is reported to have organised and led some rallies.

The country has been facing severe electricity crisis for two days.

With hydel generation receding further, oil squeeze worsening and two nuclear power plants stalled because of technical faults, the electricity deficit shot up by over 8,000MW — almost 50 per cent of the demand.

Although the federal government claimed that it was releasing some money to pay dues of the oil supplier, Pakistan State Oil, it did not happen till the filling of this report.

Two major power plants — Hubco and Kapco — remained offline. One nuclear plant which was due to become operational in the morning sank again because of technical faults at 10am.

The people suffering from prolonged power outages took to the streets and attacked government and private properties. A police station came under attack in Gujranwala when police baton-charged protesters in an effort to keep the situation under control. Read more…