PESHAWAR, June 28: The lawmakers hailing from the loadshedding hit southern parts of the province on Saturday lashed out at the poor performance of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company for the spells of unscheduled power outage.
The lawmakers, belonging to the Awami National Party, the Pakistan People’s Party (Sherpao), and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal were unison in their voice against the unscheduled loadshedding by Pesco. They urged the government to order Pesco to end this practice immediately.
Speaking on a point of order, Kalb-i-Hasan from Kohat told the House that most of the suburban villages in his constituency were faced with the long spells of unscheduled loadshedding for many a days. “I have time and again asked Chaudhary Nazir, superintending engineer of Khyber Circle of Pesco, to upgrade the old transformers in his area as people are undergoing a hell under the scorching heat, but he didn’t listen to me”, he added.
Mr Hasan demanded immediate removal of Pesco official, who according to the MPA was creating problems for the residents in his constituency. Qari Abdullah Bangash from Hangu also criticized Pesco for what he called its anti-people policies. He spoke about the miseries of Hangu people at the hands of Pesco and protested over the loadshedding.
When the Deputy Speaker Ikramullah Shahid denied them to speak on the issue, both Mr Hasan and Qari Bangash went out of the House in protest. Maulana Mujahid al-Hussani from Nowshehra, Mohammad Ibrahim Qasmi, Khalid Waqar Chamkani from Chamkani, Shad Mohammad Khan from Lachi and Mohammad Mukhtiar from Swabi also staged a walkout against Pesco’s performance.
Some of the MMA lawmakers from Charsadda, Mardan and southern district registered their protest by rising from their benches.
Endorsing the protest by his fellow MPAs, Anwar Kamal Khan of the PML-N asked the chair to get all of them back in the House. He said the issue raised by the protesting MPAs could not be ignored and government should convey their feelings to the Pesco authorities.
Explaining the situation, minister for information Asif Iqbal said he met with Pesco officials and they denied any loadshedding was taking place in any area, but he would again meet them.
Later, the MMA ministers sought the approval of grants for the supplementary budget for 2002-3 and promised that next time they would not beg for the same.
Israrullah Gandapur of the PPP-S and Pir Mohammad Khan of the MMA criticized the performance of the finance and development and planning department. In the past, they alleged that the financial wizards of the government didn’t release the required amount for the execution of schemes under the Tameer-i-Sarhad Programme.
They said the present annual development programme, made by the P&D, was enough to suspect the rationale of the planners. The P&D officials had ignored all the backward areas and included the developed ones into the ADP.
Opposing a demand for grant of Rs94 million, incurred for the general administration during 2002-3, Mr Gandapur sought a break-up of Rs190,000, fixed for the opposition leader.
Mr Gandapur said as who had drawn this honorarium earmarked for the opposition leader as they had yet not agreed on leader of the combined opposition. He said the amount had been drawn by someone and government should explain it.
Minister for finance Sirajul Haq said it also stunned him, but the mover should withdraw his cut motion.
Pir Mohammad of the MMA said he had submitted cut motions with the speaker’s secretariat, but none of them had been placed on agenda.
