SWABI, Nov 7: The supply of electricity was suspended to Gandaf Afghan Refugees Camp over nonpayment of dues, said officials of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) here on Wednesday.

They said that Rs2 million dues were outstanding against the dwellers of the camp. They added that payment of the dues was already delayed for about five years owing to a stay order issued by a court.

The Pesco officials said that Afghan refugees had been living in Gandaf for last three decades and receiving uninterrupted electricity supply.

They said that contract of power supply was awarded to four Afghan contractors like that of other camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and they performed their duty according to the requirements of Pesco.

The Afghans refugees, when contacted, said that they were without electricity for the last four days. They alleged that the contactors were overcharging them and that’s why the dues of Pesco were not paid.

The Pesco officials said on condition of anonymity that refugees had adopted delaying tactics, forcing them to suspend power supply to the camp. “We are not in a mood to restore the power supply without clearance of dues,” said a Pesco official.

The rivalry between the contractors and refugees complicated the issue and the Pesco staff disconnected power supply to the whole camp where the number of the consumers is about 2,000. “Now none of the refugees can utilise electricity and it has been decided that it would remain suspended till payment of dues,” said a source.

However, the Afghan refugees claimed that the contractors were responsible for the mess. They said that they would not pay the outstanding dues. They demanded immediate restoration of power supply to the camp.

IJT: Mohammad Zubair Safdar, central chief of Islami Jamiat Talaba, has said that the youth forming more than half of the country’s population have no direction.

He told Dawn here on Wednesday that about 1.2 million youth of the country were getting education in universities but they had no direction to achieve their targets.

Mr Safdar said that successive governments and leaders were responsible for the complicated scenario because they failed to give clear guidelines to the youth of the country.