SUKKUR, Jan 11: The entire city plunged into darkness the moment the plane carrying Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani took off from the Sukkur airport on Sunday evening.

In the wake of the prime minister’s visit to Sukkur, main roads of the city, particularly those on the route of his motorcade, were cleaned properly and all the pothole that had developed were repaired overnight, a task which otherwise would have been impossible to carry out on such a short notice.

Besides this, the much–trumpeted shortfall in power generation was also suddenly forgotten by the Hesco authorities as no load-shedding was observed in the city during the entire duration of the premier’s visit.

However, residents of Sukkur were well aware that this relief was short lived, because they had to face load-shedding with the departure of the prime minister from the city.

An official at a local grid station told this scribe that load-shedding was cancelled due to the presence of the premier in the city and would be started soon after his departure.

Earlier, hotels and shops on the route of the motorcade of the prime minister especially Bunder road were forcibly closed by the police and no one was allowed to park cars or other vehicles on the route, due to which people of the area faced great difficulties.

Besides this, heavy contingent of police was deployed on all main roads of the city and no vehicles were allowed to pass through the route of the prime minister’s motorcade.

The work done overnight was good enough to give a new look to the city roads and people were surprised over the speedy repair of pits and proper sanitation throughout the city.