Pakistani Infuriated at Power Outages
By Arfa Siddiqi • Jul 24th, 2009 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look • 9 CommentsWith soaring temperatures, humidity and increasing losses in their businesses, traders, teachers, students and local residents took to the streets in protest against the Pakistan Electric Power Supply Company (Pepco) and the Pakistani government due to extreme cases of power outages. They erupted into clashes, smashing furniture and private & public property, including a train in Faisalabad, injuring the driver. At this point the police fired tear gas that eventually led to a halt in the protests, and arrested many other violent protesters. Clashes erupted in various parts of the cities including Karachi, Lahore, Chakwal, Rawalpindi, Attock, etc.
The question that all those protesters need to ask themselves is this: did this do them any good? Did the power outages stop? Did they get their required amount of electricity? Was the desired result from this activity achieved?
Apart from injured people, arrested members of families ‘causing further trouble for their dear ones and damaged public property leading to even more loss of urgently needed funds, nothing was helped.
What these protesters need to understand is that these acts of ignorance will do nothing. Pakistani Government needs money desperately for various projects– SWAT IDPs and for the funding of electricity. By the destruction of public property, these people are inflicting further problems upon themselves!
A better solution would have been to save time, money and energy, and use it for something much more productive that would earn them money, and use that money to pool in money along with neighbours/nearby residents and buy some sort of a generator or power supply source that would help them all! I really do not think erupting into violent clashes would do anybody any good if not harm!
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Click For More Articles By Arfa Siddiqi I'm a teenage blogger, born in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I'm of Pakistani ethnicity. I choose to blog about the current human rights violations and political activism, as a means to speak out against injustice and to create awareness and do my part in this world. I'm working towards becoming a journalist and a human rights lawyer. Through the process of blogging, I'm looking to share and debate ideas in order to increase my knowledge and understanding of the world around me, so any ideas, thoughts and notions you have, please share and enlighten me.
"Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free." -Dalai Lama
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The comment was deleted by TPS Service with disgust. Mr. Saeed, we urge you to refrain from posting such comments in future, otherwise your will be banned.
TPS cherishes free speech, but there are some limits and you may read them in our comment policy at About Page.
regards
Saeed, have you ever heard of word ‘Decency’?
First of all about your post arfa, you said right that nothing can achieve through strikes and protests, I don’t agree with you that Govt. need money, they already have enough in their own pockets. And about doing something productive what can they produce without any Power Supplies?
And secondly I have observed that you guys are not maintaining proper check and balance on your site that what is written on your site, look comment above me and you must take a look of comments of Venna and Asif’s Weeding post. So do something about that so that a decent reader feel comfortable while surfing your site
Regards: Shahzaib Siddiq
During my writing of comment Maria post a comment, when I said look comment above me I meant comment from Saeed.
TPS You rock.
Arfa, I dont think that people could be refrained from not resorting to violent reactions. Just image being without electricity, food, water, medicine for days and with no hope and also when you see the leaders enjoying every blessing on earth, and your kids are hungry and without healthcare and education, then violence is natural. This violence is surely gonna turn into much more ominuous, may be civil war.
Pakistani Infuriated at Power Outages
Pakistani infuriated on deletion of comments
Pakistani infuriated when notice is given to dictator
Pakistani infuriated when criticize on bad behavior
Pakistani Infuriated when no intention is paid to them
Pakistani Infuriated when disregarded on the spot.
Pakistani Infuriated when there is no rain
Pakistani Infuriated when there are lot of rains.
so where should Pakistanis stand for getting cool down ?
Nazia says “”where should Pakistanis stand for getting cool down ?”"
Pakistanis may “sit” instead of “stand” for getting cool down !!!
Pakistani’s Infuriated at Ferocious aunty.
Thank you TPS for deleting Saeed’s ignorance :]
@Shahzaib– I agree with you that the Government pockets most of the funds, however, violent protests do nothing anyway. Joh paisa mulk per lag bhi raha hota hai woh bhi nahin lagta kyuon keh damage control mein chala jata hai. Now think about all those poor people who used the trains to commute to their workplace to earn their livelihood. Nuksaan hi hua na, faida toh hua nai!
@Maria– You’re absolutely right, mulk ke halaat aisay hee chalte rahe toh civil war bohot jald hosakti hai. I do agree with you, seeing the politicians living in extravagance while not even having water or electricity yourself can ’cause great distress among the population. But at the end of the day it does not have an impact on the stone-hearted politicians– they don’t care! They’re immune to this.
Peaceful protests could be more helpful rather than violent demonstrations and breaking law and public property. Whatever money the Government might have decided to use on the funding projects would be used in damage control.