Worst power outages on first day of Ramazan

 

 ISLAMABAD: All the claims of the federal government on reduced electricity loadshedding during Ramazan and zero loadshedding during Sehr, Iftar and Taraveeh prayers fell flat as the people across the country had to face the worst power outages on the first day of the holy month, making it hard for them to make preparations for Sehr and Iftar.
In the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the people had to suffer almost 12-hour-long power outages. Before the start of Ramazan, the situation was better as there was only six-hour to eight-hour loadshedding. With the commencement of fasting, the situation got aggravated and the power outages had gone up to 12 hours.

In the adjoining areas of the twin cities like Taxila, Attock, Chakwal, Gujjar Khan, Mandra, Jhelum and others, loadshedding had made the lives of people miserable.In Lahore, power outages during Sehri, Iftar and Taraveeh timings continued, making people’s lives miserable on the first day of Ramazan.

In addition to the curse of erratic power supply, people complained about power failure after every hour throughout the day. They said they felt intensity of outages had increased during the last couple of days. Since 4:00am on the first day of Ramazan, the power supply became disrupted after every hour till 7:00pm, said Khalid Khan, a resident of Bhatti Gate. This type of loadshedding had not been done before Ramazan during the daytime, he said adding that such ‘constant’ power failures also led to water shortages in their area.

The data of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) indicates that power availability during Sehri, Iftar and Taraveeh is not in accordance with the claims made by the Ministry of Water and Power. Against the demand of over 4,500MWs, Lesco is getting just 3,400MWs during Iftar and Taraveeh timings.

Throughout the day, as per the official data, people living in Lesco areas were made to suffer from over 50 percent shortfall in electricity supply. Against the peak demand of about 4,500MWs, Lesco is getting jut 2,400MWs of electricity during the rest of the day. The menace of unannounced loadshedding is in addition to the power suspensions made under the load management plan.

Lesco said on Monday some variations might occur in the revised load management plan for Ramazan due to system overloading issues, especially on grid stations being fed from 220KV New Kot Lakhpat grid station.

Under the revised load management plan, the industry faces the biggest brunt of outages. As many as 12 hours of outages are being observed in textile industry, furnace, continuous process industry and steel re-rolling mills.

Meanwhile, power shortfall was recorded at 4,500MWs on Monday. Power generation was recorded at 13,500MWs while the demand for electricity hovered around 18,000MWs. Hydropower generation was recorded at 5,100MWs.

Other districts of the Punjab, including Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Multan, Bhawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, were also the hit by loadshedding.The situation in rural areas of the Punjab was all the more serious as the people had to suffer more than 18 to 20 hours of loadshedding.

The power supply situation in other provinces was no different as in Sindh,particularly in the rural areas, the power outages had gone beyond the limit of human endurance. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the loadshedding issue had become so ugly that around 12 hours of prolonged and unscheduled power loadshedding was being carried out in the province.

In the upper parts of Hazara division, loadshedding added to the woes of the people who were fasting in sweltering heat.The local people complained that they were facing power outages at Sehr and Iftar. “The government had announced to reduce the duration of power outages during Ramazan,” said Mohammad Riaz, a shopkeeper.

He said the government should provide relief to the people in Ramazan and reduce the duration of power outages as the people were braving the scorching heat.“The people are fasting in scorching heat, so the government should provide them some relief,” he said.

Faiz, the leader of a traders body, said that they would take to the streets if the duration of power cuts was not reduced to less than five hours a day.“The government should provide relief to the people as they are fasting in sizzling heat without electricity that is out for hours at a stretch,” he said.

Karachi attack worst example of security failure: Opposition

 

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly (NA) on Monday deplored the terrorist attack on the Karachi airport while the opposition expressed its dismay over the government’s silence on the terror bid and questioned the absence of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar from the House.
It demanded that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif take the parliament into confidence on the matter and said the government and the opposition were on the same page for taking solid steps to formulate a policy against the terrorists.

The NA session resumed after a delay of two hours due to disturbance of flights schedule in Karachi. Members from both the sides unanimously condemned the terrorist attack on the Karachi airport and on the pilgrims in Taftan in Balochistan.

Opposition Leader Syed Khursheed Shah said the terrorist attack on the Karachi airport was a “national security disaster”. He questioned the government’s silence on it and absence of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar from the NA.

Sheikh Rashid suspected involvement of a foreign hand in the incident and questioned who will benefit from the attacks on Pakistan. He questioned what benefit will the tribal people from North Waziristan gain from the attack. “If such an incident had happened in India, they would have brought their forces to (our) borders.”

Minister for States and Frontier Regions Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch said the war against terrorism was a national war.

Khursheed Shah urged the prime minister to take the House into confidence in this regard. “We don’t speak out as we are afraid of being killed. Who will speak if we keep quiet,” he questioned.

The opposition leader said, “We will fight like a lion and make Pakistan a cradle of peace. How can the people of Pakistan feel safe when the government is itself confused?”

He said there was no response from the interior ministry to the incident, which shows that the concerned ministry was unaware of what was going on in Karachi. “It seems that the prime minister tried to find out the interior minister the whole night and he was able to find him on Monday morning. Then the prime minister sent the interior minister to Karachi,” he added.

He said the Taliban had accepted responsibility for the attack and the government was silent over it.

The opposition leader said all the political parties of the country authorised the government to do anything for peace eight months ago but the government had not taken parliament or the political leadership into confidence on the fate of the dialogue.

The opposition leader was of the view that even the Parliament House was not secure anymore as a few weeks back, Sikh protesters entered it and no one stopped them. He said it was time that the prime minister take the nation into confidence and explain which ministry was responsible for the attack – the Defence Ministry, Interior Ministry or Aviation Division.

He said the PM’s adviser on aviation had reached Karachi on Sunday night but the interior minister was not able to reach there. He said by doing so, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar wanted to give a message to “someone” that he did not want to fight with anyone.

The opposition leader said he wanted to ask the question from all the institutions of the country that when pilgrims entered Iran, they were always safe but as soon as they returned home, they were attacked and martyred.

He said the parliamentarians’ phones were tapped, and their activities were monitored but “they” (those who tap phone calls) did not know about the terrorist attacks.

He said even they are more interested to know what TV channels the government was with and slogans were raised against those TV channels. “We are busy in such petty fights and nobody cares about the security of Pakistan,” he said.

Shah said if anyone wanted to live, then live like a lion rather than a jackal. “Pakistan belongs to all of us and all of us have to come forward to make our land safe and secure,” he added.

The opposition leader also appealed to the media not to telecast such incidents live as it will create a wrong impression.

PTI’s Deputy Parliamentary Leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the government looked paralysed following the terrorist attack.

He said the interior minister should have rushed to Karachi on Sunday night. “The interior minister should have gone to Karachi after taking parliament into confidence,” he added.

Qureshi said Pakistanis wanted peace in the country and in the wake of terrorist attacks, the debate on budget was meaningless.

“When Karachi bleeds, how the finance minister can achieve the revenue target of Rs3.7 trillion which he proposed for the next fiscal year,” he added.

Ameer Zaman of the JUI-F extended support to the government to tackle the menace of terrorism.Abul Waseem of the MQM said the party was raising its voice against the Taliban in Karachi for long.

Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid strongly condemned the terrorist incidents in Karachi and Taftan.He paid tributes to the armed forces for bravely foiling the bid of terrorists. He said the interior minister had gone to Karachi to get details of the incident and will give a detailed statement in the House on Tuesday (today).

Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan Chaudhry Barjees Tahir said today was a very sad day for the nation. He said the nation had to make a resolve to fight terrorism. He said the government will not compromise on its writ. “The government is clear that it will hold a dialogue with those who are ready for it,” he added.

He said the PML-N government had inherited terrorism. The House offered Fateha for those who lost their lives in Karachi and Taftan to terrorists on Sunday night.

Worst loadshedding spell as four Mangla Dam units break down

 

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: The country on Sunday witnessed the worst spell of loadshedding after five units of the Mangla Dam broke down.
Loadshedding is likely to increase in various cities after the power shortfall in the country exceeded 4,500 megawatts (MW) from 3,500MW.According to sources, thermal power plants are not producing electricity according to their capacity despite sufficient fuel supply. They said the power distribution companies were providing low voltage to reduce the duration of loadshedding .

The sources further said that the duration of loadshedding could be increased to 16 hours.Several areas of the country are experiencing power outages of 12-15 hours daily while the situation in some cities of the Punjab is even worse.

Power generation in the country stands at 13,350 MW while demand is 16,900MW.Meanwhile, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali has claimed that the government is proactively executing diverse programmes to overcome the energy crisis.

Meanwhile, four people died of sunstroke and dozens others were hospitalised as the mercury rose to almost 50 degrees centigrade in several cities of the country on Sunday.According to reports, three persons, including two-year-old Arzoo of village 82/6-R, Ahsan, 10, and 32-year-old Muhammad Aslam hailing from village 67/5-R of Sahiwal, fell unconscious due to sunstrokes. They were shifted to hospitals where they expired.

Ahmed Deen, 65, of village 62/5-R died after exposure to the heatwave.Meanwhile, dozens of people affected by intense hot weather were shifted to different hospitals in Sahiwal where, according to medics, the condition of three was critical.

The citizens have expressed grave concern over the nearly 15 hours of loadshedding daily and demanded that the provincial government improve power supply.In Karachi, temperature was recorded at 40 degrees centigrade on Sunday morning. Rural Sindh is also suffering from the intense heat wave. Extremely high temperatures were recorded in various cities of the province including Jacobabad, Nawabshah, Larkana, and Sukkur. However, the temperature is likely to drop in the province from Monday (today).

In Punjab, the situation is no different as the heat wave is prevalent in most parts of the province. Extremely hot weather has gripped most of the plain areas of Punjab including, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Bahawalpur divisions.

Severely hot weather also grips many parts of Balochistan, including Turbat and Sibi division, whereas the use of cold drinks has increased due to the heat.The Met Office has predicted that the heatwave would continue to grip most plains areas of the country for the next few days.

An intense summer is also being witnessed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The citizens are visiting parks, canals, beaches and recreational spots to battle the weather whereas the demand for cold beverages has also increased.

Meanwhile, the Met Office has predicted rain with thunderstorm in some areas of Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Malakand and Hazara Division.Jacobabad remained the hottest area during the last 24 hours where the temperature recorded was 50°C, while the maximum temperature recorded in other cities were: Dadu, Sukkur, Larkana, Moenjodaro, Sibi 49°C; Noorpur Thal, Rohri, Shaheed Benazirabad, Rahim Yar Khan, Padidan and Turbat 48°C.

Our correspondent from Lahore adds: With a high mercury level on Sunday, a majority of citizens thronged the city canal and other water spots to beat the heat.With loadshedding and severe heat, a large number of Lahorites went to the Lahore canal to beat the heat. All swimming pools and other water sports facilities were packed. Hours-long traffic jam was also witnessed at the canal road near Jallo Morr.

Met officials said the highest maximum temperature in the city was recorded as 46.3 C. They predicted very hot and mainly dry weather with chances of dust raising winds for the next 24 hours. They said a westerly wave lying over the extreme northern parts of the country had moved away eastwards while the seasonal low pressure lies over northern Balochistan.

Sale of plastic paddling pools has also increased in the city. A vendor sitting at the roadside in Faisal Town said since the morning he had sold over ten large and five small pools.

Timeline of worst plane crashes in recent years

The Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200 Flight MH370 of Malaysia Airlines had 227 passengers aboard. (AP Photo)

The “unprecedented mystery” of a missing Malaysian plane has deepened with no trace of wreckage found even after three days of multinational search operations.
The Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200 Flight MH370 of Malaysia Airlines had 227 passengers aboard, including five Indians and one Indian-origin Canadian, and 12 crew members.
Here is a look at some of the world’s deadliest air disasters in recent years:
February 16, 2014 | Nepal: All 18 people aboard a small passenger plane that crashed into a snow covered mountain bad weather in Nepal were killed. The plane carrying 15 passengers and crew of three was en route from Pokhara to Jamia. The crash highlighted the poor safety record of Nepal, where more than a dozen airlines fly to nearly 50 airports, many in remote hills and mountains shrouded in cloud and cut off from roads.
February 11, 2014 | Algeria:  A military transport plane carrying members of the Algerian armed forces and their relatives crashed into a mountain, killing 77 people, the worst air disaster in the North African country in a decade. State television showed footage of the wreckage of the plane near the village of Ouled Gacem in eastern Algeria, smoke rising from the site and emergency crews scouring the forested area for survivors and bodies.
  November 17, 2013 | Russia: Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737 went into a nearly vertical dive and crashed onto the runway on landing in Kazan, Russia, killing all 50 people on board. The Boeing 737 belonging to Tatarstan Airlines was making its second attempt at a landing in Kazan, 720 kilometers (520 miles) east of MoscowThe jet hit the runway and burst into flames. All 44 passengers and crew of 6 were killed.
November 13, 2013 | Namibia: A Mozambique Airlines plane en route to Angola crashed in a game park in northeast Namibia, killing all 33 people on board. Flight TM 470 left Maputo for the Angolan capital Luanda with 27 passengers and six crew when it lost contact with air traffic controllers.
October 16, 2013 | Laos: A Lao Airlines plane flying in stormy weather crashed into the Mekong river in southern Laos, killing all 44. The virtually new ATR-72 turboprop plane flying from the capital Vientiane crashed just eight kilometers (five miles) short of its destination Pakse and sank into the river. The weather was poor at the time of the accident.
  Lagos: A Dana passenger plane crashed into a densely populated part of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, killing all 147 people on board. The McDonnell Douglas MD-83, operated by privately owned domestic carrier Dana Air, was coming into land on a flight from the capital Abuja when it hit the building, not far from Lagos’s Murtala Muhammed Airport and burst into flames.
May 14, 2012 | Nepal: A Dornier plane owned by a private company crashed in northwest Nepal, killing 15 people including 13 Indians. The aircraft was carrying 18 passengers and a crew of three on a flight from the resort town of Pokhara to Jomsom when it crashed while landing at the mountain airstrip.
April 20, 2012 | Pakistan:  A Pakistani airliner on an Airblue domestic flight from Karachi with 127 people on board crashed in bad weather as it came in to land in Islamabad, leaving no sign of survivors. The Boeing 737, operated by local airline Bhoja Air, was flying to the capital from Pakistan’s biggest city and business hub Karachi. It crashed into wheat fields more than 5 miles from the airport.
July 26, 2011 | Morocco: At least 78 people were killed hen a Moroccan military transport plane crashed into a mountain in the south of the country during bad weather. There were three injured survivors so far from the crash, which happened when a Hercules C-130 aircraft was trying to land in Guelmim, having flown north from the disputed Western Sahara territory.
July 08, 2011 | Congo: An airliner ploughed into dense forest as it tried to land during a rainstorm in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, killing 127 people on board. There were 51 survivors.
November 05, 2010 | Cuba:  A state airliner filled with Cubans and travelers from Europe and Latin America crashed and burst into flames in a mountainous area, killing all 68 people on board. AeroCaribbean Flight 883 was en route from the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba went down near the village of Guasimal in Santi Spiritus province, carrying 61 passengers and a crew of seven.
July 28, 2010 | Pakistan: In the worst aviation accident in the country, a Pakistani passenger plane crashed in heavy rain near Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board. The Airbus 321, belonging to a private airline crashed into a heavily wooded and hard-to-access hillside while flying from the southern port city of Karachi.
  May 22, 2010 | India: In the country’s worst air disaster in a decade, an Air India Express Boeing 737 plane overshot the airport runway in Mangalore and burst into flames early this morning killing 158 persons but eight others survived. The aircraft, carrying 160 passengers and a crew of six, hit a concrete localiser instrument, a navigation aid, and fell into a ravine 200 to 300 metres deep. The passengers included four infants and 19 other children.
April 10, 2010 | Russia: The plane of Polish President Lech Kaczynski crashed outside the western Russian city of Smolensk, killing all 96 aboard.