Flying into Lahore a couple of nights ago, I thought that I was flying over several neighbouring towns, until the passenger sitting next to me pointed out that what I was actually seeing was the effects of load shedding, the system of power rationing whereby at any particular time only some neighbourhoods will have electricity.
Failure to maintain infrastructure, and privatisation, are the cause.
This is a big political issue for reasons which are not difficult to understand. All the mainstream parties are getting into the action, including the PMLN which is the party in power in the Punjab provincial government, who held a protest and traders strike today.
The smaller protest I went to was not organised by any political machine, but by students at BNU (a quite prestigious local university, I am told) through social media. It included, but was not exclusively, leftist students.
A small but very vocal group of young supporters of Imran Khan showed up, but stood slightly apart from the other students, who were generally sceptical of the cricket legend’s claims to be the saviour of Pakistani politics promising all things to everyone. Pakistan has seen plenty of saviours who dissapoint, but not just Pakistan. “Imran Khan offers change like Obama did, but did Obama bring change?” one of the protesters (not a leftist) put to me.
But, anyway, here are the cricketer’s fans:
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