ISLAMABAD, 19 JUNE (DNA) – Demonstrations were held in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the electricity load-shedding during the holy month of Ramazan. Protestors blocked the Islamabad-Peshawar motorway in Swabi district early Friday as they people had no electricity during “sehri.”

Besides the protests in KPK, violent protest also took place in different parts of the country on Friday. In Hyderabad, angry protesters set ablaze HESCO office in Latifabad NO. 6.

According to DNA Hyderabad correspondent, the protesters got violent while holding a demonstration against long-hour electricity load shedding in their area and ruined  HESCO office.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had ordered no load-shedding during “Sehari” and “iftar”; however, people in KPK have complained they did not have power during “sehri” timing.

Meanwhile the gov’t said Friday the electricity demand and supply gap for domestic consumers during Iftar, Taraweeh and Sehri timing starting from evening of June 18th remained 1300 MW due to record high consumption across the country.

“The overall generation at average stood at 15500 MW with peak touching 16000MW, however the domestic consumption demand remained around 17000MW,” an official statement said.

“The Ministry of Water and Power is exploring all avenues for optimal load management to keep the iftar, taraweeh and Sehri timing load shedding free. However, the high domestic consumption pattern creating a gap of around 1300MW may result in short term load shedding in some areas of the country even during these timings to save the system from overloading.”

The statement said some areas may face short terms of load management in wake of the above stated position, however the Ministry has chalked out a plan to minimise the overall impact by distributing the load across the country.

In the Ramazan last year, the generation gap was around 2000 MW and therefore more areas and longer periods of load management had to be enforced during the Iftar, Taraweeh and Sehri timings. This year although the consumption has experienced a rise of some 1000 MW, the record generation and system improvements have reduced the gap to 1300MW.

The Ministry of Water and Power has appealed to the consumers to minimise their consumption and observe electricity conservation during the Iftar, Tarawee and Sehri timings so that maximum areas can be provided uninterrupted power supply.

The Ministry has also requested national media to help sensitizing the consumers in minimal use of electricity throughout the day and especially during the Iftar, Tarawee and Sehri timings. DNA