Pakistan: Farmers block highway in Khuzdar to protest against loadshedding

KHUZDAR: Hundreds of landowners and farmers blocked the Quetta-Karachi National Highway in Pakistan's Khuzdar on Friday to protest against prolonged power loadshedding, Pakistan-based Dawn reported.

The farmers and landowners said the prolonged power loadshedding was destroying standing crops in Khuzdar and nearby areas.

Long queues of vehicles were formed on both sides of the road as the highway blockade suspended all kinds of traffic between Sindh and Balochistan, causing inconvenience to the passengers. The protesters gathered at Zero Point in Khuzdar and blocked the highway by placing barricades and boulders, the report said.

While addressing the rally, protest leaders said that 18 to 20 hours of daily power loadshedding were destroying wheat and other crops. They called on the government to end the "economic massacre" of landowners and farmers and ensure uninterrupted power supply to all agricultural feeders so that crops could be watered.

Later, the Khuzdar additional deputy commissioner held talks with protest leaders and assured them of resolving their problem. The farmers, after getting assurance from the authorities ended the protest, according to the Dawn report.

Meanwhile, the people in Karachi have been facing the problem of power cuts, longer outages, and loadshedding with no respite for consumers in sight during the month of Ramzan.

Nasir, a citizen of Karachi stated, "We have been facing this issue for a long time, and in my area of Ranchore Lines power is cut every two hours. We get power for only 12 hours a day, and we still get the same bill. They keep adding useless charges to our civil electricity bills and we are now fed up."

"We can either manage rent or take care of these bills, in the limited income that we have. These power cuts have been ruining our celebrations of Ramzan. Hence we demand that the government take care of this issue as it is causing us a lot of problems," he added.

Another citizen Mauhaumad Yakoob highlighted the issue of electricity theft. He called on the Pakistan government to take strict action against those stealing electricity.

He said, "This problem continues because of the people who steal electricity. We try to use the least amount of power as we pay our bills with honesty, but we suffer due to these thefts. The government must take strict actions against those people who are doing this so that we who pay our bills honestly don't suffer."