KHAR: In protest against the excessive power outages in Bajaur Agency, the people of Khar, the regional headquarters, on Sunday announced to boycott the upcoming polio campaign.

The decision was made at a meeting attended by people from different walks of life, including workers of political and religious parties, trade union leaders and elders.

The participants expressed concern over the power loadshedding, which has been continuing in the agency for last few months, stressing people out.

They said several delegations had met officials of local administration and Tesco on a number of occasions to end the loadshedding, but to no avail. They lamented that power outages increased after the meetings with the officials. They claimed that people were facing up to 22 hours of outages, saying due to low-voltage they were unable to operate tube-wells.

The participants decided that people of Khar town would boycott the coming anti-polio drive in the region if the power loadshedding wasn’t stopped.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2016