UPPER DIR: Pakistan People’s Party, Upper Dir chapter held a protest demonstration here on Wednesday against excessive power outages in the district.

The protesters blocked the Dir-Peshawar road to traffic for almost two hours by burning tyres in front of district courts. Long queues of vehicles were witnessed on both sides of the road. PPP district president Arifullah, information secretary Syed Jhangir Shah Advocate, PYO central vice president Israr Yousafzai and others addressed the protesters, pointing out that almost 20 hours of loadshedding was being carried out across the district, including the Dir city.

They said electricity supply remained suspended for four to five hours at a go to be restored only for a few minutes, testing the patience of people. They said there was no schedule for loadshedding in Upper Dir, adding low voltage was also creating problems. They held the Chukiyatan grid station staff responsible for the messy situation.

The PPP activists also criticised the elected representatives for their silence over the alarming situation. They said the lawmakers and district government functionaries were not taking action against the grid station staff.

They set a week’s deadline for Pesco to end the excessive loadshedding and low voltage, otherwise they would demonstrate across the district.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2017