SIALKOT, July 7: Eighteen hours long power breakdown claimed three lives, including that of an old woman, due to hot and humid weather. While more than 17 people, including women and children, fainted on Friday.

Electricity supply remained suspended in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial, Pasrur, Satrah, Chawinda, Badiana and surrounding areas the whole night on Thursday and almost all day on Friday. Majority of people remained unable to say their Juma prayers, as water was not available due to power failure.

Muhammad Bashir, 47, in Sialkot, Muhammad Aslam in Pasrur and Razia Bibi, 52, in Bella, Begowala, died due to heat. Of the 17 who fainted, the condition of Imtiaz, Usama, Salman, Sakeena Bibi, Bashiran Begum and Ghulam Rasool was stated to be critical.

Meanwhile, city wore a deserted look on Friday due to intense heat. No significant business activity was reported from any part of the city as people remained indoors. However, a rush of youth was seen along the banks of canal and water channels at various spots in the district.

Meanwhile, all leading businessmen’s organisations have condemned Gepco for failing to ensure uninterrupted power supply.

They said due to power suspension, exporters were unable to meet export orders thus suffering loss of millions of rupees.

In Daska, the farm machinery manufacturing industry has also been badly hit by the electricity suspension as it remained closed for the third consecutive day on Friday due to power outage.

Meanwhile, some electronics dealers told newsmen that the sale of generators has picked up.

They said dealers have doubled the price of a unit due to increase in their demand. The price of a new generator was Rs3,000 to Rs3,500 a week ago and it was being sold for Rs6,000.

They said on average an electronic dealer was selling around 60 to 70 generators daily.

KASUR: The Lahore Electric Supply Company has enhanced the duration of loadshedding in the district from 10 to 16 hours, adding to the problems of the people.

What is more agonising for the people is a complaint that there is no loadshedding in the residential areas of bureaucrats and senior officers in the Officers’ Colony and on Kalyaar and Kutchery roads.

Scores of people from various localities complained that they had been putting up with 16-hour long unscheduled loadshedding for the last two days. Earlier, the duration for power cut-off was not more than eight hours.

A meeting of the district bar association decided that the lawyers, together with people from other organisations and welfare societies, would surround the Wapda office at 10am on Saturday (today) to protest against loadshedding.

Meanwhile, PML-N labour wing leader Haibat Nawaz Khan Niazi, district president Nasir Mahmood Khan, labour union leader Allah Ditta and Zulfiqar Ali announced that they would stage a sit-in in front of the Wapda office on Abdul Qadir Road on July 12.

In a press release, they said the government’s anti-labourer policies had already made them and their families face starvation and now long loadshedding was paving the way for industrial downfall. They pledged that all workers would assemble under the PML-N flag and oppose loadshedding.

Farmers of Thai Wadana, Kot Radha Kishan and Noorpur too had taken exception to prolonged power cut-offs. As tubewells could not function, they said, their standing crops were being destroyed.

Rahim Yar Khan: Frequent power outages and unscheduled loadshedding have made the life of the people miserable while Mepco authorities have failed to look up the situation.

Power suspension was reported from almost all parts of the city including, New Officers Colony, Businessman Colony, Trust Colony, Haji Muhammad Colony, Mohallah Malik Feroz, Mehmood Colony, Airport Road, Jinnah Park, Satellite Town, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulshan-i-Usman, Iqbal Nagar and Habib Colony.

Citizens complain that three to five hours of power suspension, in 10 to 13 breakdowns a day, have become a routine in the affected areas for the last 10 days.

The surge in temperature with humid weather conditions has also added to the miseries of the people. Power fluctuations are also taking its toll as electric appliances are damaging in large number in residential areas.

Doctors in private hospitals and clinics also complain that patients are facing problems on account of prolonged power breakdowns.