SWABI/MINGORA: A prolonged power breakdown in Topi tehsil and its suburbs paralysed life and trade activities on Wednesday.

The traders said that the electricity supply was disrupted before dawn when the region was hit by rain and thunderstorm. However, the Pesco staff failed to restore electricity for almost 10 hours.

When contacted, Peshawar Electric Supply Company officials said that they were trying to locate the fault in the main transmission line. However, at noon they finally succeeded in their endeavour and started the repair work. The electricity remained suspended from 6:00am to 4:00pm.

The banks in Topi city also stopped their routine business, causing problems to the customers. When asked, staff of banks in Topi tehsil said that the electricity breakdown had forced them to stop work.

Answering a question, they said that the UPS system had stopped functioning and they no longer had electricity. The traders also said that their entire activities depended on power supply and they had to suffer losses due to the breakdown.

In Mingora, the residents of different areas threatened protests against Pesco after the fresh wave of prolonged power outages.

They said that the duration of outages had been extended to 16 hours while there was a five-hour long power breakdown in major parts of the Swat valley which affected the daily routine of people and shut down businesses powered by electricity.

Residents of Amankot, Faizabad, Rahimabad, Saidu Sharif, College Colony, Afsarabad, Shagai, Khona Cham, Mingora, Malookabad, Rang Mohallah, Tahir Abad, Watkey and other areas of Swat said that they had been facing problems due to the power cuts.

“For the last five days we haven’t received water from the supply pipeline because of the daily loadshedding from morning to afternoon and then every alternate hour,” said Khalida Bibi, an elderly woman of Faizabad area who was fetching water from a well at her neighbourhood.

The prolonged loadshedding has badly affected tailors business too who say they are unable to earn enough money to buy food for their families.

“The loadshedding starts at 9:00am sharp daily and ends at 2:00pm and then after every hour power cut is observed. So even a single suit cannot be sewed in the entire day which has pushed us into financial problems,” said Jamil Khan, a tailor in Saidu Sharif.

Residents of Swat said that the federal government was taking revenge on the people of Swat as they did not vote for PML-N in the last general elections. They said that the duration of loadshedding in Swat was longer than in any other part of the country.

When contacted, an official at the Pesco office in Saidu Sharif said that some construction was in progress at the Swat grid station due to which power loadshedding was being observed.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2016