PESHAWAR: An action committee constituted against ‘unannounced and unjust’ power outages in villages of Pabbi tehsil in Nowshera district announced starting its protest movement from June 17 by blocking GT Road to all sorts of traffic and observing a shutter down strike in the area.

Few days ago, a meeting of leaders of all the major political parties, elected representatives of local councils, traders and civil society members was held wherein the a 10-member “Action Committee Pabbi” was formed.

The committee, headed by the chairman of Pabbi tehsil council, Ghayur Khattak, held a meeting on Sunday and announced starting the protest movement from June 17.

The meeting was followed by a press conference addressed by members of the committee. They condemned government for resorting to oppressive power outages.

Mohammad Ilyas, a member of the committee, said that their protest would be peaceful and no harm would be inflicted on government properties. He said that they had given enough time to government for addressing their problems, but in vain.

Ghayur Khattak stated that their protest would continue throughout the day. He added that they intended to continue it the next day also.

He said that they had completed their homework and had visited different village councils of Pabbi tehsil for creating awareness among people so that they should fully participate in the protest movement.

He stated that people in different villages of Pabbi tehsil had regularly been paying their electricity bills, but despite that they had been subjected to severe power loadshedding in the scorching heat.

He demanded of government to reduce power suspension by half on feeders where presently there was no electricity supply for 16 hours and 12 hours, respectively.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2025