Lahore, April 23 (IANS) Pakistanis had to go without electricity for up to 16 hours Friday following power shut-offs and outages due to a shortfall of over 5,000 MW, a media report said.

The daily Dawn reported Saturday that the electricity shortfall shot up by 50 percent because of increase in demand Friday, forcing 16 hours of loadshedding.

The Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) said it was facing a shortfall of 5,010 MW, with the demand at 14,475 MW.

Officials said a reduced supply of oil and gas, shortage of money to buy oil and a drop in water release from two major dams were the main factors leading to this "disastrous situation".

They said that their own units were not working properly with half of them facing outage due to lack of proper maintenance and the rest were not getting oil.

Another official said the situation could worsen over the next few days as weather was getting hotter.

"Once air-conditioners are switched on throughout the country, which Pepco is expecting in a week's time, it will add about 5,000 MW to the demand, and things can go haywire then," he said.