SWABI: People have been thronging the river and canal sites to pass time and beat the heat amid sizzling weather conditions and power loadshedding in Swabi district for the last four days.

A great rush of people was witnessed at the Indus River site and Pehur High Level Canal here on Tuesday. People also turn to downstream of Tarbela Dam and Ghazi Barotha hydro-project to enjoy bathing, especially during Ramazan.

People belonging to different regions said that the excessive power outages in Ramazan had forced them to pass most of their daytime at the edge of Indus River and canals.

“The people here are lucky to have the watercourses like the Indus River, Pehur and other canals where they could stay and enjoy for hours to pass the day,” said Liaquat Ali of Hamlet village.

However, it has been noted that there is no separate site for women on the banks of the river and canals where they could also pass sometime. The women suffer the most in the summer owing to prolonged power loadshedding, as they have no option to step outside and visit the canals.

WELCOMED: Local leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Tuesday welcomed the decision of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to hold anti-Wapda march in Peshawar on Wednesday (today).

They said that through this march the people would come to know that it was the federal government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz which was responsible for the unscheduled power loadshedding in KP even in the month of Ramazan.

Party’s district president Anwar Haq Dad and general secretary Yousuf Ali regretted that the main focus of the PML-N government had been to defame the PTI-led government.

They said that the KP was generating electricity, but the federal government was not fulfilling the needs of its people.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2014