The Cantonment and surrounding areas continued to suffer and the dwellers of those localities woke up to a four-hour-long stretch of power shutdown that began at 6am.
The early hours' power shutdown also affected the fuel supply at various filing stations. The CNG stations also restricted the per-vehicle gas supply to just two Mft, leaving the consumers in a difficult situation.
The posh Hayatabad Township also remained to be the worst-hit locality where the quarters concerned resorted to almost a daylong power shutdown and the gas supply to the sprawling town dropped to a record extent.
However, the rural areas and the city suburbs, where people protested the load-shedding a day earlier, remained to be the lucky ones where the early morning power-outage schedule was skipped for an hour or two.
The protests against the unannounced load-shedding took an ugly turn on Thursday as unruly mobs ransacked the Wapda offices at Tehsil Tangi in the Charsadda district and set ablaze power transformers.
Angry residents made announcements through loudspeakers late on Wednesday night asking the dwellers of the area to keep their business shut on Thursday and protest against Pesco for suspending power supply for hours.
The businessmen kept their business shut consequently and gathered, along with the protesting residents, to stage demonstrations against the Pesco authorities.
The protesters marched towards the Pesco office and pelted stones on it, besides rummaging through the furniture and other equipments before setting ablaze the power transformers in the office yard.
The protesters, led by PPP poll candidate Zafar Azam, Faizullah Hassrat of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the PPP-S's Asad Zaman and Samin Jan Khan of the ANP, also blocked the Charsadda-Tangi road for three hours disrupting all kinds of traffic.
Meanwhile, District Nazim Charsadda Haji Faran Ali warned the authorities of a possible civil unrest in the area if the problems of power and flour supply were not overcome immediately.
In Mardan, for the first time, the Hoti women protested against the suspension of the gas and electricity supply to the urban areas.
A large number of enraged locals, including over 100 women, blocked the main Hoti Bridge and condemned both the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and the Sui gas department.
The women, who held sticks and clubs, said they were suffering because of the power and gas load-shedding and the children could not go to schools due to the non-availability of the utilities in the early hours of the day.
Meanwhile, police personnel, led by ASP Pervez Umrani, baton-charged the protesters at the Nehir Chowk and Par Hoti to disperse them.
Also, the officials of the Sui gas department and the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) Mardan met District Nazim Himayatullah Mayar and assured him that the problem of load-shedding of gas and power would be solved within three days.
Our Mingora correspondent adds: Over 16-hour-long suspension of the power and gas supply had become a matter of daily routine in Swat, which had made life miserable for the people in the valley.
The hide and seek of the supply of both the utilities was continuing and the power and gas outages rendered the residents hapless, as they could not even cook their meals.
Our Miranshah correspondent adds: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) on Thursday criticised the power crisis in the agency and called for urgent steps to end load-shedding.
The demand was made at a meeting of the local chapter of the party, presided over by party President and Chief Organiser Dr Bashir Ahmad Khan.
APP adds: Unprecedented load-shedding disrupted normal life in the Punjab as the power-outage duration reached 10 to 12 hours per day.
Not only industrial, commercial and domestic life activities had been affected but the agriculture sector had also been badly affected.
Due to prolonged load-shedding, adequate electricity was not available for tube wells, which had adversely affected the wheat and fodder crops.
President Anjuman Kashtkaran Miraj Lakhwera warned that if the ongoing quantum of load-shedding continued, then the wheat production target would not be achieved.
Meanwhile, Wapda Chairman Shakil Durrani said on Thursday load-shedding would be overcome to a great extent by the end of the current month.
Addressing a press conference at the Wapda House in Lahore, he said: "We would be able to get out of the current crisis in around 10 days. However, it will take about three weeks to control the situation and by January 30, it will be almost normal."
Giving the causes of the present crisis, he said the main 500KVA transmission line of Hubco was seriously damaged by blasts on Jan 1, while the suspension in fuel supply due to the riots following Benazir's assassination aggravated the situation.
He said a team of engineers had been sent to repair the damaged transmission line of Hubco.
He said Wapda as well as all the independent power producers (IPPs) lacked fuel storage facilities and in case of the suspension of supply, they were unable to operate their power generation facilities.
The Wapda chairman said under the rules, the IPPs should have sufficient fuel to meet their demands for two weeks, so that in case of any untoward situation, they would continue their power generation operations. However, currently, most of them had fuel only to meet their demands for one or two days, he said.
"We have approached the government for the issuance of notices to the IPPs in this regard," he added.
The Wapda chairman said another problem was that Wapda was not getting the required quantity of natural gas, adding that effective steps had been taken in that regard and within a week, 300 to 500MW power would be provided through that source as well.
He said the Kot Addu Power Plant would also start producing 600MW power within a week when it got the fuel supply from Karachi.
He said the power demand in the winter season during daytime was 8,500MW, while it increased to 11,500MW at night.
Currently, he said, power supply stood at 6,500 MW, showing the shortage of about one-third of the total demand.
He said by Jan 20, the water release from the Mangla and Tarbela reservoirs would increase, leading to the increase in power generation by 600 to 1000 MW. In case of rain, the situation would improve further, he added.
To a question, he said had the Kalabagh Dam been constructed, the country would have not faced the power crisis.
He said Wapda suffered the loss of Rs 100 million in Hyderabad alone during the recent violence.
He said three separate committees had been constituted to look into the causes of the current situation and make suggestions to ensure that such situation did not arise in the future.
Meanwhile, Wapda Executive Engineer Mian Ashfaq said the demand for electricity was far greater than its production. Therefore, Wapda has to resort to load-shedding to manage the shortfall, he added.