SWABI: The Swabi Action Committee (SAC) has announced that a protest meeting would be held on June 4 in Topi tehsil headquarters to press the government not to charge fuel cost and other taxes in the electric bills from local consumers.

Salim Khan Advocate, the SAC head, made the announcement during a presser here on Monday.

Salim Khan, who is former provincial general secretary of Awami National Party, said that Swabi people had rendered tremendous sacrifices for the construction of the Tarbela Dam, which is the electricity lifeline of the country. ”Despite this huge contribution, we experience excessive outages,” he deplored.

On the occasion, Rahim Khan Jadoon, an activist and leader of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, said they would stand with SAC in its struggle to realise the rights of Swabi people.

“We will participate in the protest meeting with full strength. We have already started mobilising party workers to attend the gathering,” he said.

Ihsanul Haq Bamkhelvi, chief of Da Haq Awaz, a welfare body, said they had campaigned for a year to ensure provision of free electric units to people. He said his organisation would be part of the SAC caravan.

Fazal Khaliq, president of Utman Jirga, said the SAC campaign would culminate in a big success because all political parties, other stakeholders, and most importantly, people of the district supported its cause.

Liaqat Yousafzai, who is the media coordinator of the committee, told Dawn that their next campaign would be marching on Tarbela Dam and pressing the federal and provincial governments to meet the people’s demands.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2024