PESHAWAR: Pakistan People’s Party Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Mohammad Humayun Khan on Monday warned that his party would join protests against the excessive power outages in the province if the federal government failed to take corrective measures on emergency basis.

In a statement issued here, the PPP leader said the frequent power cuts had made the people’s lives so miserable in KP, especially during Ramazan, that they had come onto the roads and turned violent.

“Our party will join protestors if the government fails to take steps on emergency basis to control power outages,” he said.

Mr Humayun said the energy crisis had forced many industrial units in the province to close down besides stressing the domestic power consumers.

Justifying power protests in parts of the province, he said the people had had no option but to come onto the streets over the Peshawar Electric Supply Company’s failure to ensure smooth supply of electricity.

The PPP leader also complained about the frequent power tripping and low voltage and said the power outages had caused acute water shortage in many areas and thus, driving the people out of their houses against the ‘injustice’.

He criticised the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leadership over election claims to end energy crisis after coming to power and said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should admit his failure on the issue and step down and if that didn’t happen, the people would force him to quit.

Mr Humayun also criticised the PTI government in KP for failing to get share in the national financial resources to focus its attention on installation of micro power units in the province.

He said the ruling PTI had always shouted hollow slogans and did nothing tangible for the people’s development.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2017