NOWSHERA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak threatened here on Thursday to lead a long march against prolonged power outages in the province if the problem was not resolved.

Talking to journalists after returning from Islamabad, he said that federal ministry for water and power was responsible for excessive outrages and over-billing in the province.

Criticising the statements issued by Federal Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali against the provincial government on different occasions, the chief minister asked him to revamp the entire system of electricity.

He asked the minister of state to stop blatant corruption in Wadpa instead of using derogatory language against the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that instead of pacifying, Abid Sher Ali was deteriorating the situation by abusing the people.

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Mr Khattak said that the minister of state was confusing people instead of giving a proper direction to them. He said that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would launch long march against outdated system of Wapda and he himself would lead them if it was not revamped.

“FIA has launched inquiries against all stores of Wapda, which has stopped provising transformers to consumers and people are bearing loadshedding even in the holy month of Ramazan,” Mr Khattak said.

He said low power voltage and prolonged loadshedding of electricity were the biggest problems of the province. The federal government was trying to hide its incapability and shift its responsibility to the provincial government, he added.

The chief minister asked the federal government to concentrate on Wapda as it was looted by corrupt elements. He said that Wapda should revamp its system rather than putting burden on the poor and downtrodden.

The provincial government had extended full support to Wapda staff and deployed police to stop theft of electricity, Mr Khattak said. Unfortunately 50 per cent electricity was stolen and the remaining was lost owing to the old supply lines, he added.

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He said that provincial government allocated millions of rupees to the power sector to reduce the miseries of poor people.

The chief minister said that FIA had sealed all stores of Wapda to probe its corruption and dig out real facts. He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was generating cheap electricity but the federal government was selling the same at higher rates.

Mr Khattak also rejected the notion that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan had asked his party lawmakers to resign from National and provincial assemblies.

He said that the issue was not discussed in the party meeting. It was just a meeting for reviewing arrangements for the long march, to be organised on August 14 by PTI in Islamabad, he added.

“There is no such matter. It not true that PTI chairman Imran Khan has asked his party lawmakers to resign form before the long march. Different matters regarding preparations for the long march were discussed in the meeting,” the chief minister said.

Mr Khattak said that the provincial government was carrying the agenda of change in the province forward. He said that the government launched a uniformed pace of development. The chief minister said that provincial government had advised the federal government to make investment in generation of cheap electricity, which could control the prevailing energy crisis. He said that construction of several small and big dams was need of the hour.

Mr Khattak said that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had given heavy mandate to PTI. There was no rigging in the elections in the province otherwise their opponents would have moved the courts, he added.

He said that the mandate was reaction to the corruption, nepotism and wrong policies of the previous rulers. “We are endeavouring round the clock for bringing about a change in the system and the people are realising it. Jobs are not auctioned now while the departments have started delivering,” the chief minister said.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2014