25 December 2004	Saturday	12 Ziqa'ad 1425

PESHAWAR, Dec 24: The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), a subsidiary of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), is suffering Rs70 million monthly loss because of non-payment of electricity charges by thousands of power consumers of 25 villages forming de-facto tribal areas near here, according to official sources.

These sources said that several requests made to the provincial government for helping Pesco in recovering monthly electricity bills from power consumers of tribal areas had never been entertained.

The company, according to sources, had been supplying power to the tribal area, some 30 kilometres from here, free of cost. The situation, said the sources, had encouraged the power consumers as power consumption in the area was on the rise.

"They are using power like anything because they don't have to pay a single rupee," said a senior official of Pesco. Successive provincial governments have failed to establish their writ in the area, situated on the line of demarcation between the Federally-Administered Tribal Area, from the Mohmand agency side, and the Frontier province, from the Shabqadar side.

"We can't do anything to bring Pesco's losses down because our staff cannot dare install meters or make recoveries from the de-facto tribal region," said an official source.

In accordance with the company's data, there are more than 10,000 power consumers in 25 villages forming the de-facto tribal region - falling under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.

"The number of power consumers could be much more than 10,000 as there are people who have taken connections directly from the power distribution lines through kundas without intimation to the power company," said the source.

On an average, according to sources, the company provides power worth Rs60 million to Rs70 million every month to the area. Whereas, the recovery stands at the zero level.

About 90 per cent of the registered power consumers, according to Pesco's record, is of domestic consumers and the remaining formed by the owners of marble units functioning in large number in different parts of the de-facto tribal areas.

Officials said that the Pesco chief Brig Tahir Saeed Malik had sent numerous memos and made presentations, at least on four different occasions, to NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani requesting him to rein in in the de-facto tribal region.

The chief minister, said the sources, was requested to extend his government's writ to the area to help Pesco install meters and start recovery of monthly power charges from the consumers.

The last military government in the province had undertaken measures to end the 'de-facto tribal areas' status of the said 25 villages situated in the outskirts of Shabqadar sub-division of the NWFP and bring them under the direct control of the province.

However, its efforts in this regard, according to sources, remained unfulfilled as despite having established police stations in the area the government could not achieve the desired results.

Whereas, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal-led provincial government did not make any move to put an end to the situation fearing the backlash as any move, said the sources, might attract law and order situation in the area as people of the 25 villages were opposed to the inclusion of their area to settled parts of the province.

"In a situation when police cannot freely operate in the area and police stations are not safe from miscreants' attacks, how can Pesco staff enter these villages to recover monthly electricity charges," said the official.

Officials said that the company did not stop power supply to the area because of likely reaction from the people of the area. "They might attack and destroy Pesco's grid station in Shabqadar in case we stop power supply," said the official.