Huge protest rallies were taken out in various parts of the country against the ongoing load-shedding and power crisis, today on Friday. Aaj News reported.

Frustrated and angered protesters abandoned their daily routines to form rallies and protest against the discriminatory long load-shedding hours in various parts of Sindh and Punjab.

Multan, Thatta, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sheikhupura, Lahore and other major cities came under stress as violent protesters brought daily life to a halt, by staging demonstrations and setting tires on fire.

Traffic was suspended in most parts of Multan because of road blockades as protesters burnt effigies of people they hold responsible for their distress.

Meanwhile, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, people are facing the worst of this energy crisis, as some localities are reported to have been without electricity for more than 30 hours now. WAPDA officials explain the problem as a technical fault in the power grid station which will be fixed soon. Similar power outages have been reported in rural areas of Sindh. Masses of Thatta came out in protests today as they have been victims of load shedding since Thursday, it is said that the Larkana power grid station caught fire and needs to be repaired in order to restore the power supply to Thatta.

The government, in its budget for 2012-13 has provided various avenues and budgetary resources for the power sector by increasing allocation for subsidies from earlier projection of Rs 120 billion for the next fiscal year to Rs 150 billion with a major portion of for the power and energy sector, but speculations are, that these efforts will only prove useful in increasing the National Grid’s power to an insignificant amount; not attending to the realistic resources needed to curb the crippling power crisis in Pakistan.