MARDAN/KARAK: People in Mardan and Karak on Tuesday blocked local roads to record their protest against unscheduled and prolonged power outages in their areas.

In Mardan, the protesters from various parts of the city were led by district nazim Himayatullah Mayar. They gathered at the College Chowk and blocked the busy square to traffic for several hours, resulting in a traffic mess in the city. The participants chanted slogans against the government and Wapda officials for their failure to permanently solve the issue of power loadshedding.

Mr Mayar asked both the federal and provincial governments to fulfil the promises the PML-N and PTI leaders had made during 2013 general elections regarding solving the issues of power and gas loadshedding.

He said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had promised during its election campaign that they would build 350 small dams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but its government had failed even to build one dam. He said that on the one hand the government was claiming that it had increased electricity production, on the other the people of KP were subjected to prolonged power outages. He threatened that they would besiege the CM House in Peshawar if the issue of electricity and gas loadshedding was not resolved forthwith.

In Karak, people of Ghundi Mir Khankhel union council on Tuesday blocked the Karak-Sabirabad road for several hours in protest against prolonged power outages. Led by tehsil councillor Maulana Mohammad Ismail, the protesters blocked the road at Kamran Shaheed Chowk.

The speakers, including Maulana Ismail, Watan Badshah and village nazim Haji Badshah, threatened on this occasion that they would close down educational institutions and observe boycott of polio vaccination if smooth supply of electricity was not restored. They said that the local authorities of Peshawar Electric Supply Company had disconnected power supply to the entire union council for the last two months.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2018