SWABI, Jan 3: Thick fog accompanied by cold weather on Monday forced people to stay indoors, disrupting routine life.

The Swabi interchange of Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway also remained closed because of dense fog. Public transporters on other roads were advised to use great care during driving, as fog considerably reduced road visibility.

Fog conditions were so heavy that both public and government schools had to cancel morning assembly.

Worst affected by thick fog were the areas situated on the bank of Indus River, especially Hund, Sheikh Dheri, Haryan, Nabi, Beka, Zarobi, Kalabat, Tang Kohi, Anbar, Jahangira and Yar Hussain region of Chota Lahor tehsil. Also, the areas near the Tarbela Dam and residential colonies were among the most affected.

LOADSHEDDING: The Swabi Islahi Jirga on Monday demanded of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) to immediately withdraw fines arbitrarily imposed on consumers and issue a loadshedding schedule so that people could plan accordingly.

The jirga meeting, chaired by its president Sabz Ali Shah, also claimed to have the backing of local political leaders and welfare bodies.

Talking to reporters, information secretary of the jirga Shah Wali said that the participants declared that consumers would not pay the fines imposed on them by the Pesco officials unfairly.

He said that the issue of electricity fines should be dealt by the Swabi district Pesco officials and sending such cases to Mardan offices was not acceptable to the consumers, welfare bodies and jirga members.

“We want a loadshedding schedule and will not tolerate excessive loadshedding. The jirga rejected the district administration’s plea for softening our stand on stoppage of excessive power outages,” said Mr Wali, who is also a local leader of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf. He said that their protest camp, set up eight days ago, would remain intact till all of their demands were met.

It has been learnt that a senior police officer has written to commissioner Mardan and Pesco superintendent engineer about the seriousness of the fine issue as more and more people and leaders are supporting the jirga demands.

The district coordination officer has also called a meeting of the executive engineers on Tuesday to take up the issues of fines and loadshedding.