KHYBER: The supply of electricity to entire Landi Kotal tehsil was suspended on Thursday when protesters besieged the local grid station, switched off all power feeders and later threw an iron chain at the main transmission line.

The residents of the area were protesting against the new schedule of 22 hours daily power loadshedding.

Supply of electricity to the entire Jamrud tehsil also remained suspended on the second consecutive day as residents continued their protest sit-in at the grid station and stopped staff from entering the premises.

Protesters in Jamrud also threatened on Thursday to uproot the power pylons recently in their area under Central Asia-South Asia (Casa) power project, if the new loadshedding schedule was not withdrawn.

Sit-in against loadshedding continues in Jamrud on second day

In Landi Kotal, rowdy protesters numbering in thousands first besieged the local grid station and forced its staff to switch off power supply to all the government buildings and installations along with the local bazaar and hospital.

Later, some of the young protesters climbed a power pylon in Sultankhel area and threw an iron chain at the 132KV main transmission line which resulted in the complete suspension of electricity to the entire Landi Kotal and Torkham border.

Protesters in both Jamrud and Landi Kotal blocked the main road at a number of locations which disturbed vehicular traffic for the whole day. The road blockade also affected trade supplies to Afghanistan with most of the transporters taking trade goods to Afghanistan preferred to stay back in Peshawar and other safe localities.

The district administration tried in vain to arrange negotiations between officials of Tesco and tribal elders from Jamrud and Landi Kotal to find a workable solution to the newly-emerged situation after the new loadshedding schedule was implemented. The negotiations failed as both Tesco officials and the tribal elders refused to budge from their respective positions.

Tesco officials had been insisting that their company was unable to supply electricity to the tribal districts free of cost anymore as the federal government had stopped subsidy to it while electricity bills worth billions of rupees during the last four months were also not paid.

Tesco had only recently demanded of authorities to deploy additional police at the three grid stations in Jamrud, Bara and Landi Kotal, apprehending the wrath of locals after increase in loadshedding duration.

Tesco officials’ requests and persuasions about installation of digital power meters at houses in tribal districts also fell on deaf ears as the tribesmen rejected the proposal and related ‘free’ power supply to them to the tribal districts’ share in National Finance Commission award, which they alleged was never paid to them.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2023