SWABI: People belonging to Chota Lahor city and its suburbs staged a protest demonstration and blocked Chota Lahor-Yar Hussain road against excessive power outages here on Sunday.

They people gathered in Chota Lahor and marched to the local bus stop where they chanted slogans against the Peshawar Electric Supply Company and both the federal and provincial governments.

They complained that power supply was being suspended at Sehr, Iftar and Taraveeh times and there was no one to listen to their complaints. They also criticised the political leadership for their frequent claims of ending loadshedding and improving the transmission system over the last few years.

The protesters warned that they would not end the road blockade till assurance by the Pesco to issue a formal loadshedding schedule. The commuters were forced to wait in harsh summer for opening of the road and there was no alternative route.

Later, the protesters opened the road when the Pesco officials assured them that there would not be excessive loadshedding in future.

Meanwhile, the PML-N and PTI in their separate gatherings traded allegations about the loadshedding.

PML-N district president Shiraz Khan said that Pesco worked under the provincial government and the PTI government was responsible for the entire mess.

“The PTI leaders want to defame the PML-N government by allowing power outages,” he said.

PTI district president Anwar Haqdad claimed that there were no power outageswhen their party was ruling the country.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2022