LAHORE - The helpless Lahorites are spending sleepless nights in hot and humid weather as Lahore Electricity Supply Company (Lesco) has resorted to 16-hour-long loadshedding, thanks to the political leadership of the Punjab capital for keeping mum when the entire population is facing worst power outages of the season. According to official sources, despite the fact that the recovery ratio of Lesco has registered at record 97 per cent, it has unleashed to 16-hour loadshedding, making peoples lives more miserable. The sources say the company has resorted to unscheduled outages, after every hour during the daytime while two to three hours after every hour during the night. On Tuesday night, people were left with no other option but to leave their homes and stay in the open, at the rooftops or in the streets and roadside parks, to wait for the restoration of supply, as humidity was just unbearable. The consumers expressed grave concern over the PML-Ns top leadership and its legislators silence over the issue of worst outages in the City. They were of the view that Lahore was considered to be the stronghold of the party, but no leader had come out to lodge protest against the government in contrast to Karachi where MQMs leadership had protested vehemently and gave tough time to the federal government to ensure relief for the Karachiites. The PML-N is showing least concern to the biggest issue of public interest rather they are focusing on removing 17th Amendment from the sacred book, Syed Munawar Ali, a resident of Johar Town told this reporter by phone. Unannounced loadshedding in most of neighbourhoods of the City and other areas of Punjab continued unabated. Most of the outskirt areas get electricity supply for 4 to 6 hours only while the LESCO officials at the complaint centres have stopped attending phone calls of annoyed customers. The woeful scenario is multiplying peoples miseries especially of those living in far-flung and rural areas of the province. The minor children are worst affected by excessive loadshedding in this humid weather. We are spending sleepless nights and left with no other option but to stay in open air during the night, Ahmed Khan, a resident of Iqbal Town commented. Sohail Ahmed from Township said the Urgent Power Supply (UPS) system had stopped functioning due to excessive loadshedding, as it needed sufficient time for recharge. On the other hand, Lesco sources say maintenance and breakdown of a major transformer at Bund Road forced the company to unleash to unscheduled load shedding. They further said the supply and demand gap was widening due to hot and humid weather, while installation of huge decoration lights on the eve of Independence Day and Shab-e-Barat was multiplying the effect. The loadshedding has also caused water scarcity in various parts of the City as people were witnessed bringing water in bottles from other areas. They said the water supply mostly remained suspended. According to information, Green Town, Township, Johar Town, Faisal Town, Mozang, Samanabad, Islampura, Sanda, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Iqbal Town, Garden Town, Mughalpura, Harbanspura, Shalimar, Ravi Road, Shadman, Cantonment Area, Garhi Shahu, Wahdat Colony, Awan Town, Sabzazar and Walled City are the worst affected areas. It is important to recall that a couple of weeks ago, the worst unscheduled loadshedding forced the irate public to take to the streets and express their anger against the government, as the protesters ransacked several Lesco offices and government installations. People complained that the government had increased tariff by at least 300 per cent during the last couple of months but instead the outage duration had multiplied. They also said the PPP-led government had failed to overcome energy crisis and the top leadership was not serious in resolving the most serious problem being faced by the public. Objecting strongly to long hours of outages, they said the domestic and industrial activities had come to a halt. They urged the government to take remedial steps to overcome the crisis and refrain from implementing its decision of increasing electricity tariff. In this regard, traders said business activities in the City had been hit badly besides putting extra-burden on them, as they were using generators during long hours of loadshedding. Meanwhile, traders bodies including Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Pakistan Industrial Association Front (PIAF), Lahore Township Industries Association (LTIA) and All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) have expressed grave concern over the excessive power outages and high cost of electricity. They have demanded the government to take concreted steps to overcome this menace. When contacted, the chief executive Lesco was not available for his comments.