RAWALPINDI: Women and children staged protests against gas loadshedding in different parts of the city on Monday.

More than 100 women and children from Quaid-i-Azam Colony, Lakhan, Ghaziabad, Ahmedabad and Garoti gathered on Dhamial Road to protest against the government and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL).

They were holding cooking utensils and chanting slogans against the prime minister and Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khagan Abbasi.

The protesters blocked Dhamial Road and triggered a traffic block at Bakra Mandi, Dhoke Syedan, Tahli Mohri, Chungi Number 22, Chakri Road, Hayyal Road, Lakhan and other linlcing roads.

A housewife, Sajida Bibi, was protesting along with her four children who, she said, could not go to school because of the load shedding.

`The gas pressure is low for 14 to 16 hours usually, even in this cold weather. I cannot even make a cup of tea for breakfast for my children,` she said.

A resident of Ahmedabad, Sohail Khan, said he had voted for PML-N in the general elections of 2013 and also in the local government elections. Far from solving other problems, he said, the government had even taken away gas and electricity after being elected.

Nasira Bibi of Chakri said she had been on her way to Chungi Number 22 to take her son to the doctor`s when she had gotten stuck in the traffic and had been for an hour.

She said the cold weather had made her son sick.

`The government should provide the people with gas,` she said.

Many protesters said the gas problem had worsened after the local government elections and said supply was short especially early in the morning or late evening.

Some said they had lodged complaints with SNGPL and with local PML-N representatives, but nothing had been done about the problem so far.