LAHORE/PESHAWAR: Prolonged power outages triggered by well over 50 per cent shortfall for common consumers, coupled with hot and humid weather, pushed people over the edge, besetting major part of the country with violent protests causing damage to official and private property in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The urban areas suffered 12 to 14 hours of loadshedding on Monday and rural feeders faced up to 18 hours of power cuts as one of Chashma Nuclear Power Plants and three plants in Muzaffargarh (AES Lalpir, PakGen and Kapco) remained partly or fully offline. The plants had been damaged by a storm on Friday.
The severity of the protests jolted the federal government in more than one ways when apart from facing popular fury it received threats from two allies (PML-Q and ANP) to withdraw support if the problem was not solved soon.
Lahore was cut off from Islamabad as protesters put up tents on the motorway, blocking it form 11am and causing tens of kilometres of vehicular queues on both sides.
The Charsadda-Peshawar road was blocked at River Kabul.
Pepco offices were attacked in Islamabad, Abbottabad, Charsadda, Okara, Multan, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot and Sheikhupura and many of them were set on fire.
No loss of life was reported in the protests. The road blockades that were continuing till late in the night.
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Power breakdown, long hours of loadshedding: Punjab, KP boil up | DAWN.COM
