GILGIT: Several people protested in Gilgit and Ghanche districts on Tuesday over a persistent shortage of electricity and wheat.

In Gilgit, many residents, including women, of the Zulfiqarabad neighbourhood gathered at a main intersection and blocked Shahrah-i-Quaid-i-Azam to protest up to 22 hours of daily power outages in their area.

The demonstrators, who gathered at Zulfiqarabad Chowk, chanted slogans against the government and said the crisis had been going on for the last two weeks. The residents said they were sometimes deprived of even two hours of daily electricity supply, making their lives difficult amid winter.

On top of it, they were also faced with wheat shortage, the protesters said and blamed the government for failing to provide even necessities to people.

One protester said the GB chief minister should be here to resolve public issues, but he was in Lahore “to protect former prime minister Imran Khan”.

Later, the protesters dispersed peacefully after Amin Baig, coordinator to the chief minister, negotiated with them and assured them of resolving their issues immediately.

Meanwhile, the residents of Ghanche’s Barah village, the hometown of GB Local Government Minister Haji Abdul Hameed, also staged a protest against the wheat shortage.

The demonstrators blocked Siachen Road and staged a sit-in to press the government to fulfil their demands.

The protesters slammed the GB food department for its “incompetence and carelessness” and said it had failed to provide the villagers with wheat as per the allotted quota.

The protesters ended their sit-in only after food department officials negotiated with them and assured them of solving their problems urgently.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2023