LANDI KOTAL: Hundreds of tribesmen, including schoolchildren, on Saturday staged a protest demonstration at Marble Chowk in Malagori area here against excessive loadshedding.

The protesters, led by elders Taj Mohammad, Gul Saif, Khastyar Khan and Islam Bacha, were holding black flags and banners inscribed with slogans against officials of the Tribal Electric Supply Company (Tesco) and local political administration. The protesters blocked the Malagori-Jamrud road for five hours, causing suspension of traffic on the road.

Speaking on the occasion, an elder, Islam Bacha, alleged that Khyber Agency political agent Shahab Ali Shah was not interested in resolving their genuine problems as he had ignored their repeated requests in that regard.

He said that Tesco had subjected the residents of Malagori to over 20-hour loadshedding which adversely affected their lives. “We made a number of complaints to both Tesco officials and the political administration, but to no avail,” he added.

Other speakers demanded of the Tesco high ups to take notice of the irregularities of staff members in Khyber Agency as they were allegedly demanding bribes from residents.

They demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad to take notice of the electricity loadshedding. They alleged that Tesco distributed electricity to the marble and other industries near Peshawar while subjecting residential areas to adverse outages.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2014