MARDAN: Residents of Guli Bagh area here took to streets amid heavy rain on Friday to protest prolonged gas loadshedding.

The protesters led by district naib nazim Asad Ali Kashmiri chanted slogans against the provincial government and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL). They kept the Shamsi road blocked for several hours.

On the occasion, Asad Ali lamented that despite the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province produced enough gas and its people had the first right of its use, the people were subjected to prolonged gas outages.

“We were assured by the relevant officials a few days ago that no loadshedding of gas would be carried out, but we are suffering due to prolonged outages,” he regretted.

Other speakers lamented that gas outage at morning time particularly troubled the schoolchildren and employees of government and private organisations.

They threatened to begin a sit-in for an indefinite period in front of the SNGPL local office if the gas loadshedding was not done away with within next 24 hours.

Later, DSP city Ikhtiraz Khan, additional assistant commissioner Shehbaz Khan and other officials held talks with the protesters and assured them of addressing their concern. A committee was also formed to take measures for quick resolution of the problem.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2018