Islamabad: Pakistani opposition lawmakers and activists staged a sit-in outside the president`s house on Friday in protest at perceived government inaction over the nation`s crippling energy crisis.

Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan led a march from parliament to the presidency of some 150 lawmakers and activists from Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and other opposition groups, a reporter at the scene said.

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The protesting MPs staged a sit-in at the main gate of the President Asif Ali Zardari`s carrying placards demanding his resignation. The nuclear-armed Muslim nation, with a population of 167 million, produces only 80 per cent of its electricity needs, starving industry that has slumped in the face of recession and over three years of Taliban-linked bombings.

The severe energy crisis has triggered rolling power cuts of between six to 10 hours in urban and rural Pakistan. Shouting slogans "no to corruption" and "no to Zardari government" the lawmakers condemned the routine electricity load-shedding or power cuts.

"We have come here because of the growing public hue and cry over load- shedding" said Khan, who is a senior member of PML(N).

He added that the government has failed to tackle the crisis with President Zardari silently watching the situation instead of ordering swift remedial measures.

Pakistan plans to produce 8,000 megawatts of electricity by 2025 to address energy shortfalls which trigger violent protests each summer. The government is under huge pressure from the opposition to implement a raft of reforms, in order to head off any possible threat of a call for early elections from opposition leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

All major markets in Lahore were open till noon, when activists of religious parties carrying batons and sticks forced traders to shut their shops.

They also warned transporters to keep their vehicles off the road.

"I closed my shop when there was word in the market that the maulvis (clerics) were coming," furniture trader Rana Qasim said.

He said the issue was so sensitive that nobody dared to oppose the clerics.

Rallies were also held in several cities, including Karachi, Quetta, Multan and Rawalpindi, and protesters blocked key roads by burning tires.

During sermons at Friday prayers, clerics and hardline leaders like Hafiz Saeed glorified the act of Qadri and criticised the judge who gave him the death sentence. They demanded the removal of the judge, saying he had gone against Islamic laws.

They claimed the verdict was aimed at pleasing the US at the cost of creating unrest among Muslims.

The clerics justified the killing of Taseer, saying he was liable to be killed after supporting a Christian woman accused of blasphemy and for criticising the blasphemy law.

PTI