CHARSADDA: People staged protests against prolonged and unannounced power outages here on Monday, blocking the road connecting the district with the motorway and causing traffic disruptions.

The protesters, mainly from the areas covered by the Parang-I, Parang-II and Charsadda-I feeders, took to the streets against frequent power outages, low voltage and repeated electricity tripping.

The demonstration led to closure of the Nowshera-Charsadda Motorway’s link road, resulting in long queues of vehicles to the inconvenience of travellers.

The protesters complained that despite rising temperatures, power supply to many localities remained highly irregular, severely affecting domestic consumers, businesses and students.

Also, leaders and workers of the Awami National Party held a protest outside the office of the Pesco executive engineer here.

ANP district general secretary Shahzaduddin, tehsil president Gohar Ayub and other speakers criticised Pesco over “failure to provide relief to consumers during the ongoing heatwave”.

They complained that excessive and unannounced power cuts had made people’s life miserable.

The speakers demanded uninterrupted power supply to their areas.

They warned that people’s patience was running out, so if the situation did not improve, they would agitate.

The protesters claimed that the Xen assured them during talks that the duration of loadshedding on the feeders in question would be reduced by two hours.

WOMAN DIES: A woman died in the Tangi Gulabad area here on Monday after allegedly consuming “toxic” tea.

Saeed told police that his wife was taken to a doctor after she complained of a health issue after consuming tea in which a lizard had accidentally fallen, but was sent home after treatment.

“Her health later worsened, so we took her to the tehsil headquarters hospital Tangi where she died,” he insisted.

Police said that an investigation was under way to determine the exact cause of death.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2026