July 09, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 12, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

GUJAR KHAN, July 8: The local police have booked 4,000 residents of Gujar Khan city for allegedly attacking Iesco offices and looting and damaging government property, sources told Dawn.

The sources said 22 political activists were among those booked in two separate cases. One case has been registered on the complaint of Iesco, while the other one by the police itself, they added.

Prominent among those nominated in the cases are Raja Mohammad Jawad of Jamaat-i-Islami, Raja Imran of PYO, and Raja Shaukat Hayat (social worker).

However, the sources said, no arrests had been confirmed by the police so far.

PPP MPA: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MPA Raja on Saturday said the Thursday protest against loadshedding was a purely public issue and not a political one as being portrayed by the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco).

Talking to party activists and traders representative at the Potohar Press Club, he said Iesco was politicising the issue and this step would aggravate the situation at provincial as well as national levels.

The PPP leader said public representatives and local government officials should come forward and help resolve the situation arising from the power crisis.

He said registration of criminal cases against such a huge number of locals had led to sense of insecurity among the residents.

The MPA said the prime responsibility for the crisis lay with the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) which failed to upgrade its systems despite rapid increase in electricity consumption.

He said an inquiry should be launched into the issue as highly inflated tariff was being charged from consumers, whereas there had been no improvement in electricity production and distribution network.

Mr Kiani said the opposition parties were closely monitoring the situation but at present were not interfering in the matter so that it could not be termed a political move.

He also criticised the stoning and gutting of Iesco offices and said such activities were not supported by any political group.

“In fact, political activists were asking the protesters to disperse peacefully and they also succeeded in doing so in some cases.”

Speaking on the occasion, traders representatives severely criticised the unannounced loadshedding.

They said people across the country had been registering their protest over the issue but no significant steps had so far been taken by the authorities concerned to redress the growing problem.

They gave a three-day deadline to Wapda and the police to withdraw cases lodged after the Thursday protest.

The participants also called for constituting a Gujar Khan Action Committee (GAC) to hold negotiations with the authorities concerned and to provide legal help to the people nominated in the cases.