SWABI: Provincial minister Shahram Khan Tarakai and other parliamentarians of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Sunday warned the federal government that if prolonged power outages in Swabi and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were not stopped they would block all the roads to Tarbela Dam and Ghazi Barotha Hydropower protect.

In a protest against Wapda, the PTI leaders and workers gathered at the district office and marched from there to Karnal Sher Khan Chowk while chanting slogans against the federal government and PML-N leadership.

Traffic remained suspended on the Swabi-Mardan and Swabi-Topi roads during the protest.

“Loadshedding of 14 to 18 hours in this scorching heat is totally unacceptable. We have been forced to hold protests and the government should know that we could fight for our rights,” Mr Tarakai said while addressing the protesters.

MNA Usman Tarakai claimed that the PML-N-led federal government had increased duration of power outages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa only. “Swabi district is located near the Tarbela Dam and Ghazi Barotha and we should not have faced such a harsh treatment in the shape of excessive outages,” he said.

MNA Aqibullah Khan said that the PML-N government’s strategy of massive loadshedding was aimed at defaming the PTI-led provincial government among the people. He said that they were educating the people that Wapda was a federal department and the PML-N government and its leaders were responsible for the entire mess.

Party’s district president Anwar Haqdad said that duration of power outages should be reduced in the upcoming Ramazan. Later, the protesters dispersed peacefully.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017