PESHAWAR: The dwellers of several villages here on Wednesday Ring Road for hours to protest prolonged power outages and constant tripping of electricity in their areas.

Police resorted to baton charge to disperse the protesters, who had blocked the busy Ring Road from 8am to 1pm. The road blockade caused huge rush of vehicles including container trucks transporting goods to Afghanistan.

The vehicles remained stuck on the road for up to two kilometres that caused miseries to the commuters in the sweltering heat.

The protesters from suburban areas including Garhi Atta Mohammad, Garhi Hayat Khan, Ghareebabad, Tor Baba, Dir Colony, Usmania Town, Ghafoorabad and other localities took to the streets alleging that Peshawar Electric Supply Company made their lives miserable.

The protesters chanted slogans against the high ups of Pesco.

Police resort to baton-charge to disperse mob

They also criticised local MPA Fazal Ilahi and MNA Arbab Amer Ayub for not participating in the hours’ long protest and not raising their voice regarding the issue on the floor of National and provincial assemblies.

Sher Ahmed, who was leading the demonstrators, told Dawn that Pesco authorities observed illegal power loadshedding in several villages located on the outskirts of provincial capital.

“I convinced people to install electricity meters. They have installed around 4,000 meters during the previous one year, then why Pesco observes 15 to 20 hours loadshedding,” he said.

Mr Ahmed, a former Town-IV council member from Hazarkhwani-II neighbourhood, said that the Pesco authorities punished his voters for power theft in the areas located at the tail end of Akhunabad feeder.

He said that during the protest demonstration, he held a meeting with the executive engineer of Pesco, Ashfaq Marwat, who assured him that the issue of power outages would be resolved within a few days.

Mr Ahmed said that executive engineer gave him in writing that the affected areas would be connected to the feeder of Bari Bagh or Rasheed Gari feeder to resolve the issue.

However, he alleged that now local MPA of PTI Fazal Ilahi approached the consumers of Bari Bagh and Rasheed Garhi feeders not to allow the Pesco officials to connect their feeders with the areas of the protesters.

“Fazal Ilahi wants bloodshed among the locals. He wants to do politics on the bloodshed of the poor people,” alleged Mr Ahmed.

Riaz Khan, a protester, told Dawn that the residents of several villages were facing more than 10 hours electricity loadshedding but during the previous two weeks, the duration of loadshedding was increased to around 20 hours.

Similarly, hours long loadshedding was also witnessed in almost all villages of Peshawar and semi-urban areas. The consumers said that they saw unprecedented load shedding and tripping of electricity.

They said that electric appliances got damaged owing to frequent tripping of the power.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2020