It took countrywide protests, threats from political parties to quit the government and direct orders from the President himself, for the Water and Power Ministry to announce that unscheduled load shedding will be stopped starting from today, on Friday. Aaj News reported.

According to the Power Ministry's office, a heavy payment of Rs 7 billion has been given to Pakistan State Oil (PSO) in order to resume the supply of oil to thermal power houses.

The announcement was made after the intense demonstrations being carried out by the public all across Punjab and Sindh in the previous week.

PML-Q had earlier threatened to quit the government, if load shedding wasn't controlled instantly.

In Wahari, about 900 cases were registered in the courts after violent protesters took to the streets and destroyed public and private property. However, after the protests, the load shedding has been brought under control and the public is in a relatively calm state now.

Lahore on the other hand,  saw intense protest rallies against the extensive load shedding today, people from all walks of life expressed their anger in these rallies. A special protest rally of only women and children was staged in Hafiz Abad, while the announcement was made by the Water and Power Ministry, today.

Karachi saw similar but less violent protest rallies today. People have grown frustrated and angry with the unscheduled load shedding in Karachi.Number of people have resorted to sleep on streets during the night because of extensive load shedding hours. Factories, business centers even hospitals are forced to postpone and delay their operations.  18 - 20 hours of load shedding every day has crippled the busy and hectic life of citizens of Karachi.

On Thursday, President Zardari had ordered the Power Minister Naveed Qamar to make sure that effective measures are taken to curb the long load shedding hours and to stop the unscheduled load shedding in Sindh and Punjab.

As the government tries to fill the energy debt circle with mini cash injections, PEPCO states, that the real problem lies within the Federal government, Provincial governments and the power companies, who owe billions to each other in debt .