Pakistan: Woman commits suicide over inflated electricity bill in Punjab

Gujranwala [Pakistan], July 29 : A 65-year-old woman, Razia Bibi suffering from a hernia, committed suicide after using her treatment money to pay an unexpected electricity bill, ARY News reported.
She had carefully set aside funds for her treatment, but the sudden bill left her with no other option, leading to a tragic sequence of events.
She had diligently saved money for her hernia operation. However, when faced with an unexpected electricity bill of Pakistani currency (PKR) 10,000, she had no choice but to use her medical savings to settle the payment, as per ARY News.
Following this, the son of Razia Bibi stated that his mother had gone out to buy medicine but was deeply distressed over the financial setback, overcome by despair, she jumped into a nearby drain, as per the police officials.
"My mother was a hernia patient and had saved money for her operation, but after receiving the electric bill of Rs 10,000, she paid it with the money saved for her surgery and later committed suicide," Usman said.
Razia Bibi's daughter rushed to save her mother but was unsuccessful, while the local authorities are currently conducting a search operation to recover the woman's body.
Footage of the incident leading up to the tragedy has emerged. Meanwhile, The Gujranwala Police have initiated an investigation into the incident.
Recently, Pakistan's right-wing party Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman issued a stern warning to the government, threatening to expand their ongoing sit-in protest in Rawalpindi to other areas of the country if demands regarding increased electricity bills and taxes are not met, as reported by Dawn.
According to reports, the sit-in, which is currently taking place at Liaquat Bagh, could see further escalation if the government does not respond to the demands.
The news report quoted Rehman saying, "If the government is thinking that the sit-in would continue on Murree Road only, it is wishful thinking. If they do not reduce electricity bills in a genuine manner, do not address the matter of IPPs (independent power producers), and do not revoke the [tax] slab on the salaried class, then this sit-in would not remain limited to here; it would spread further to the entire country."
Rehman criticized the government's handling of the economic situation, noting that even industrialists are struggling to pay their electricity bills. "I met traders and industrialists here in the past week and they lamented, 'we are at our limits and cannot run our factories anymore,'" Rehman said, as reported by Dawn. He highlighted the broader economic impact, pointing out that the closure of a single factory results in thousands of people losing their jobs.