MARDAN, April 30: The Awami National Party (ANP) on Monday staged a protest demonstration here against the continuous unannounced loadshedding in Mardan’s provincial constituency PF-24.

The protesters led by ANP central leader Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti gathered at the Hoti bridge and passed through various bazaars raising slogans and holding banners against Peshawar Electric

Supply Company (Pesco), President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Wapda.

The protesters assembled at Pakistan Chowk where trade organisations and local shopkeepers also joined in.

Mr Khan condemned the unscheduled loadshedding in PF-24 and said that it had cursed the lives of the people. He was surprised that on one hand Water and Power Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi was boasting that loadshedding had ended on the other hand it was continuing without any programme or schedule.

He gave a one week deadline for ending the loadshedding in Mardan and threatened that if nothing was done to address their complaints the locals would take to the streets and attack grid stations and Wapda offices, the responsibility for which would be on the shoulders of the concerned authorities.