MULTAN, 15 April 2008 — Hundreds of agitated textile workers took to street in Multan to protest against power cuts which were affecting their livelihood.
Protesters manhandled government officials at an office of the state-owned power utility and torched several vehicles, a bank and a petrol pump, a witness said.
Nearly two dozen people were hurt in the rioting as police fired shots in the air and used teargas to disperse the crowd.
About 60 people have been detained, a senior police official said. Pakistan is suffering a power deficit of up to 3,000 MW mainly because of low water levels at major reservoirs, and is implementing load-shedding, or switching off power to areas for several hours a day, across the country.
Protesters shouted slogans against the Pakistan Electric Power Company, blaming it for what they said were up to 18 hours of cuts a day, instead of about eight they said authorities had promised.
“Our workers and laborers are forced to starve,” said Abdul Khaliq Qandeel, a top official of the All Pakistan Power Looms Association that organized the protest.
“Due to the power cuts there is no work,” he said, referring to about 50,000 textile looms in the city, the home town of newly elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. A spokesman for the power company, Tahir Basharat Cheema, said the power shortage was being compounded by rising demand and some private power generators producing less electricity than their installed capacity.
Pakistan’s installed capacity is about 19,845 MW, of which about one-third is produced by hydro-electric plants. Much of the rest is generated by thermal stations, fueled primarily by gas and oil.
In January, the government shut steel melting units for two weeks and ordered hundreds of textile mills to reduce operations to cope with the power shortage.
Gilani urged people to remain calm and be patient, saying his government was striving to deal with the problem. Violence would serve no purpose, he said.
