Widespread protests against rising electricity bills hit Pakistan

Karachi, Pakistan

Thousands of people took to the streets across Pakistan on Sunday to protest rising electricity bills, some of them violently, forcing power companies to seek police security.

Acting Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar called an urgent meeting with power authorities to “review” the situation after angry protesters blocked roads and attacked power company representatives in various parts of the country on Saturday and Sunday.

Protesters burned old tires and blocked roads in the port city of Karachi, as well as Lahore, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Multan, Hyderabad and other cities over the past two days.

The protests, unprecedented in recent history, erupted after consumers received July bills following a recent rate hike and the addition of more taxes, a key demand by the International Monetary Fund to revive a financial aid package stalled for a long time.

The government, for its part, cites the continued devaluation of the local currency and rising oil prices for the latest increase in power rates.

Steadily rising inflation, which reached 38% in May and then settled at 28% in July, has further eroded the purchasing power of much of the country’s more than 240 million people.

The nuclear South Asian country was on the brink of default before the IMF stepped in and approved $3 billion in financial assistance to prop up Islamabad’s faltering economy.

A video broadcast by several local stations showed a group of elderly people beating a representative of a power company in Karachi during a protest.

Mobs attacked power stations in parts of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkwa, forcing power authorities to seek safety.

“(Electricity) bills represent half of my monthly income. How will I pay my rent, feed my children and send them to school?” Jan Mohammad, a worker, told Anadolu during a protest in Lyari, Karachi.

Mohammad earns around 40,000 Pakistani rupees ($133) a month and receives an electricity bill of nearly 20,000 rupees ($67).

Many protesters burned their bills and refused to pay them until the previous rates were reinstated.

Jamat-e-Islami, the country’s main religious political party, also called for nationwide protests against electricity rate hikes on Sunday.

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