MANSEHRA: The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) has resorted to prolonged and unscheduled loadshedding causing inconvenience to commercial and domestic consumers in the district.

The reason for increase in the loadshedding duration is being cited as 3000 to 4000MW shortfall in the country’s power system.

“We have been without water for last many days as the municipal committee has suspended the supply as tube-wells remain inoperative due to power outages,” said Mubarak Shah, a local resident.

He said that as mercury went up loadshedding also increased, making people’s life miserable. He accused Pesco of carrying out unannounced outages, causing great hardships to people, including commercial consumers.

“I cannot even meet my daily expenses due to power outages. How could I feed my family,” said Ahmad Shahzad, owner of a net cafe.

He said that duration of loadshedding had increased to 16 hours a day, which kept his net café shut most of the time.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had announced that if people voted him to power he would address the loadshedding issue immediately, but he failed to honour his words,” regretted Shahzad.

LIGHTNING KILLS GIRL: A young girl was killed and her father and uncle were injured critically when lightning hit their house in Masood Abad area of Baffa in the early hours of Sunday.

The victim was identified as Gulnaz, 12. Her father Jehanzab Khan and uncle, Abdur Rehman, sustained critical injuries. The house was also partially damaged.

Local people retrieved the injured and the dead from the rubble and shifted the injured to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital.

Meanwhile, the upper parts of Hazara continued to receive heavy downpour on Sunday, which brought the mercury down. The rain also lashed Battagram, Kohistan and Torghar districts.

ROAD INAUGURATED: The estranged MPA of Pakistan Muslim League-N Wajiuzaman Khan said on Sunday whatever stand he had taken in the senate elections was for the sake of people of his constituency.

“I have no personal vendetta with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,” added Mr Khan, while speaking at a public meeting after inaugurating a road project in Oghi.

He said he was being ignored by the party in development projects. “I simply demanded of the party to release Rs2 billion development package for my constituency, but the party didn’t listen to him,” he added.

It is to mention here that the PML-N has moved the provincial assembly speaker for disqualifying the lawmaker.

“It is unfortunate that people of Oghi have been deprived of development,” he lamented.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2015

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