PESHAWAR, Oct 31: Reacting to prolonged power outages, members of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and activists of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf held a protest demonstration outside Peshawar Press Club on Thursday and warned to start a series of demonstrations against the federal government if smooth power supply was not ensured in the province.

The protesters were led by MPAs, including Arif Yousuf, Yaseen Khalil and Fazal Ilahi. They were holding banners and placards inscribed with demands for an end to the loadshedding.

Speaking on the occasion, the MPAs said that power supply was suspended at least for 18 hours daily in different localities of Peshawar thus making life miserable for the consumers.

“We are regularly paying monthly bills and in many cases the people have paid for hundreds of units in advance, but even then we are subjected to prolonged and unscheduled power loadshedding,” they said. They called for replacement of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) chief executive Tariq Sadozai, saying that he was the actual problem maker in the province.

The MPAs said that power supply was suspended by the federal government, but people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were blaming the provincial government for this.

“We will not sit silent any longer if the centre does not stop the electricity loadshedding. On the one hand, Minister of State Abid Sher Ali has accused Pakhtuns of stealing electricity, on the other the government is torturing consumers by resorting to prolonged loadshedding,” Mr Khalil said.

He said that in rural areas power supply was suspended for over 20 hours and the people faced serious problems like drinking water shortage.

Blaming Pesco officials for extorting money from consumers, he said that in case of any fault in power transformers the people were forced to collect money for the repair without any legal reason.

Fazal Ilahi also criticised the SNGPL for low gas pressure and sending inflated bills to consumers. He said that people were fined and gas supply was disconnected on the pretext of illegal connections.