MANSEHRA: Civil society members, traders and local government representatives on Saturday announced that they would stage street protests and file a petition with the Peshawar High Court against the prolonged and unscheduled power outages in Shinkiari and its suburbs.

“Besides scheduled loadshedding, the Peshawar Electric Supply Company has also been suspending electricity supply for entire days, affecting both domestic and commercial consumers, which is not acceptable to us at any cost,” president of the Shinkiari traders’ body Ahsan Allahi told reporters.

Accompanied by advocate Waqarul Muluk, Mr Allai said residents were facing full-day power cuts every alternate day under the pretext of transmission line maintenance and trimming of tree branches along the Karakoram Highway and adjoining roads.

“Our businesses, most of which depend heavily on electricity, have been adversely affected and are barely running at break-even,” he said.

Complain Pesco hasn’t fulfilled promises for relief

Mr Allahi said high inflation had already affected their business, and they could no longer bear the impact of those disruptive outages.

Former district council member Adnan Tariq Khan said in the ongoing heatwave, residents, especially women and children, suffered from various health issues.

“Without electricity, water supply systems such as tubewells and pumps cannot operate, leaving entire communities without drinking water,” he said.

Manzoor Mughan, chairman of the Zakat Committee in Shinkiari, said despite assurances by Pesco officials to resolve the issue, no relief had been provided.

“People here pay over 99 per cent of their electricity bills, yet they have been facing prolonged outages,” he said.

Advocate Waqarul Muluk said that they were preparing a writ petition against Pesco officials.

“We are in the final stages of preparing the legal documents and will soon file the petition at the Abbottabad circuit bench of the Peshawar High Court,” he said.

HOUSES DEMOLISHED: The tehsil administration has demolished several houses acquired for the 300-megawatt Balakot hydropower project in the Sungar area.

“The tehsil administration razed some houses whose owners are unwilling to vacate despite having received payments. Others left voluntarily,” member of the Sungar village council Rashid Khan told reporters on Saturday.

A joint team comprising officials from the tehsil administration and police and led by assistant commissioner Nadar Khan and Balakot deputy superintendent of police Nisar Saddaqat, carried out the operation using heavy machinery to level the structures.

“The team also gave a final opportunity to several other occupants to vacate their homes voluntarily before proceeding with the demolitions,” Mr Khan said.

He added that the 300MW Balakot hydropower project was progressing well, with over 800 kanals of land already acquired in Sungar by the district administration for the dam and related infrastructure.

“The government plans to build a residential colony for Chinese engineers and workers involved in the project,” he said.

Mr Khan, who also serves on a joint committee formed by the local community and the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) to resolve dam-related matters, said compensation for land acquired in Kaghan Valley and the rest of Balakot had already been disbursed by the district administration.

However, a group of Sungar residents claimed that while they had received payment for their land, compensation for their houses under the Kitchen Package had yet to be made.

“The administration has paid us for the land, but we have still been waiting for payments for our houses and kitchen package,” one of the affected residents told reporters.

The Balakot hydropower project is the largest hydroelectric initiative being executed by Pedo anywhere in the province.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2025