PESHAWAR: Hundreds of power consumers belonging to different rural localities of Peshawar on Thursday held a rally outside the Wapda House against prolonged power suspensions and demanded repair of the damaged supply lines.

MPA Faheem Khan, who led the protesters, said that despite commitment the Peshawar Electric Supply Company officials were reluctant to ensure smooth power supply to his constituency (PK-72) and the people had to face prolonged power suspensions.

“We persuaded the people to remove the illegal connections and installed thousands of power meters in different localities as per commitment with the Pesco officials, but the consumers are still facing unprecedented loadshedding,” he complained.

The MPA, who is also chairman of district development advisory committee, Peshawar, said the Pesco staff was reluctant to repair the damaged power supply lines.

He also mentioned other pending issues including bifurcation of supply lines, issuance of photometers and ABC cable in the areas of Achini, Landi, Landi Bala, Mushtarzai, Nauthia, Peshtakhara, Sangu, Sarband, Banda, Shaikhan, Sufaid Dheri, Akhun Bala, etc.

The lawmaker said the people were facing severe water shortage and held the protest rally in a state of compulsion.

“We held a meeting with the Pesco chief and presented him a list of demands. We also asked for replacement of SDO and superintendent of Tajabad subdivision for not resolving the consumers’ issues,” he added.

However, a Pesco spokesman Shaukat Afzal said the main reason for the power suspensions was line losses ranging between 80 to 95 per cent. He said it was impossible to ensure continuous power supply to the areas where the people were not ready to remove illegal connections.

The load shedding in these areas, he said, was up to 14 hours despite huge line losses. He said the main cause of damage to supply lines and transformers was overloading.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2022