RAWALPINDI, July 29: Scorching heat coupled with humid weather and power outages have once again returned, after a brief respite, multiplying miseries of people, keeping a 16-hour long fast in Ramazan.

The disappearance of electricity after each hour has notched power outages up to 12 hours daily and in some places the duration swells to 14 hours a day.

PML-N lawmaker Shakil Awan told Dawn that the federal government must ensure uninterrupted power supply otherwise any protest by the fast-observing people would turn uncontrollable and would result in dangerous consequences.

“Any protest by people during Ramazan would be decisive. People cannot withstand prolonged power cuts in hot and humid weather, particularly when they are fasting. I request the federal government to take pity on poor people that cannot afford generators or alternative arrangement for electricity,” the lawmaker, who has already led protesters in the city, said.

The hide-and-seek of electricity has also triggered water-shortage in the city as tubewells supplying water remain switched off, resulting in acute dearth of the commodity, forcing residents to hire tankers from Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

Life without electricity becomes more miserable in congested areas, where inhabitants can be observed sitting outside their homes, waving hand-woven traditional air-fans.

“In summer you cannot live inside these small houses for five minutes. There is no ventilation system in our house, so we feel severe heat when there is no electricity,” Jamil Mirza, a resident of Sadiqabad said.

On the other side, the traders’ community has been hit hard by prolonged power cuts and have threaten to take to the street against the menace. As according to them, alternative energy arrangements for keeping their shops cool and bright, were quite expensive.

“We are really perturbed over continuous power outages and we are planning to observe another strike against the issue. We want a decisive strike as symbolic protests have failed to pressurise the authorities,” Zafar Qadri, general-secretary Cantonment Traders Union (CTU) told Dawn on Sunday.

GUJAR KHAN: People in Jhelum resorted to violent protests over 20-hour long power outages and set on fire offices of XEN and SDO, vehicles of Iesco and blocked G.T. Road till late at night on Saturday.

The residents of Jhelum city made announcements in the mosques and gathered in Kala Gujran area to ransack the Wapda grid station after sunset.

The angry residents blocked G.T. Road between Lahore and Rawalpindi till late hours of the night. The police in other districts of Rawalpindi region were also put on high alert to clear the road.

ATTOCK: People of Attock and Hazro announced here on Sunday to stage protest rallies on main G.T. Road and at Chacch Interchange of Islamabad-Peshawar motorway (M-1) against unannounced power outages.

“The situation shows that peaceful protests are not enough to jolt the rulers. So we have deiced to block main G.T. Road at Hattian Chowk near Iesco office and M-1 at Chacch Interchange on Monday morning,” they said and added that their protest would continue till their demands were met.