PESHAWAR: Adviser to Prime Minister Eng Amir Muqam has appealed to chief justice of Peshawar High Court to take suo moto notice of attacks on power installations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“Attacks on grid stations and offices of Peshawar Electric Supply Company are acts of terrorism and we appeal to chief justice to take suo moto notice to prevent such acts in future,” he told a press conference here on Sunday.

Referring to the attacks by PTI lawmakers on grid stations and offices in Peshawar and Malakand, Mr Muqam said that federal government could not tolerate such attacks anymore. He warned that the concerned MPA would be responsible for any mishap in future if attacks on grid stations continued.

It is worth mentioning that PTI MPA Fazal Elahi led protesters and besieged grid stations in Peshawar. The protesters forcefully restored supply of electricity. Adviser to Chief Minister Shakeel Ahmad and PTI MNA Junaid Akbar were taken into custody in Malakand on Saturday after attack on Pesco offices.

People blocked Ring Road in Peshawar on Saturday evening to protest power outages. Pesco blames consumers for power outages. The company claims that consumers do not pay their bills regularly as they are involved in power theft that forces Pesco to suspend supply of electricity.

Mr Muqam said that some people were politicising the issue. He claimed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was getting 100 per cent share from the national grid. He said that the existing system of Pesco could not bear the load and Wapda was unable to ensure uninterrupted and smooth supply of electricity to consumers.

“This is criminal act and terrorism,” said Mr Muqam while denouncing lawmakers of PTI for instigating people to destroy installations of Pesco. He said that grid stations were not personal properties of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as those were state properties. He said that PTI would be responsible for any loss if attacks on Wapda’s properties continued in the province.

He said that police only registered reports about attack in daily diary instead of taking action against the protesters. He said that police did not bother to register case against attackers and their facilitators under the anti-terrorism law.

“Instead of provoking masses against Wapda elected representatives should talk to the officials of Pesco and Wapda at Chief Minister’s House to find out feasible solution of the issue,” said Mr Muqam, who reiterated that loadshedding would become a history in 2018.

He claimed that 8,000 megawatts electricity had been inducted in the system since PML-N came into power while 20,000 megawatts more electricity would be injected in the national grid by the end of 2018.

Mr Muqam said that 400 feeders were bearing more than 50 per cent losses in the province. Despite that, he said, Pesco would reduce duration of loadshedding from 18 to 14 hours in the affected areas of Peshawar during Ramazan.

POLICE: The police finally came into action and IGP Salahuddin Khan Mehsud directed all regional and district police officers to ensure security of grid stations and installations.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, the police chief said that protests against power outages had increased and politicians, who led protesters, succeeded to enter the grid stations.

“Such acts could lead to major mishap,” the statement said and directed the officers concerned not to allow protesters to enter grid stations at any cost. The statement also said that police should not allow protesters to block main highways.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2017