Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif calls urgent meeting to address power outages issue

PAKISTAN: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will hold an urgent meeting today (Tuesday) at 12 noon, regarding the power outages across various regions in Pakistan, reported ARY News, citing sources. Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif on Monday took notice of the widespread complaints regarding power outages in Pakistan.

During the meeting, the power division will provide a comprehensive briefing to the Prime Minister on the current situation regarding load-shedding. Moreover, he is expected to issue significant directives to address and resolve the issue of load-shedding effectively, as reported by ARY News.

Earlier, the rising temperature and prolonged power outages in different areas of Karachi made the lives of the city's residents miserable. A resident said that the electricity provider for the metropolis cut off power to the area because several households in the neighbourhood failed to pay their monthly power tariff bills.

Following this, the residents of Karachi's Manghopir area organized a sit-in protest against electricity load-shedding, as reported by ARY News. The protestors have set up a camp at the electric grid station, with many residents joining the protest.

Several rounds of negotiations have been held between the protesters and the police, however, no resolution has been reached. Last week, an electricity supplying company in Pakistan, K-Electric issued a stern warning to cut off power supply to the departments of the Sindh government over remaining dues amounting to billions of rupees, reported ARY News, citing sources.

According to the sources close to the development, the Sindh government and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) have not cleared any payments to K-Electric since January. The non-payment of dues has led to a financial crisis for K-Electric, causing significant difficulties in network maintenance. Moreover, the Water and Sewerage Board alone owes K-Electric 5 billion rupees.

Prior to that, angry residents of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa restored electricity by storming into the Hazar Khawani grid station, after prolonged load-shedding led to protests amid the scorching weather, Geo News reported. People in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa entered the grid station after holding a protest outside its gate with heavy police deployment to deal with any potential law and order situation.