For the past many months, we, the citizens, have been enduring a six-hour electricity shutdown schedule whose current daily timings are 01:00-02:00, 05:00-06:00, 08:00-09:00, 13:00-14:00, 19:00-20:00, 21:00-22:00. As if this was not enough to conk out our generators and UPSs, the LESCO has resorted to un-announced shutdowns at odd hours on a daily basis. The flow of electrons is disrupted right when one is either watching (worrying) news on television or attempting to write a letter to the editor. That I may be able to finish this letter and mail it in time to you will be a minor miracle. I called up the local grid station today and found out that such un-announced shutdowns are intimated to the Lahore PDC (Power Despatch Centre) by the powers-that-be at Islamabad. What I wish to point out is that modern television sets and delicate computers were not designed to withstand such disruptive electrical insults. The only persons getting rich these days are the UPS and generator manufacturers, stockists and technicians. Who, if not PEMRA/WAPDA/LESSCO, are responsible for the damage caused to our appliances? This is state-sponsored terrorism of electrifying nature. -TAHIR GUL HASAN, Lahore, via e-mail, October 14.