LANDI KOTAL, May 26: The elders of Zakhakhel tribe threatened here on Saturday to withdraw support from the local political administration and launch a protest movement if unscheduled power loadshedding was not ended in Landi Kotal tehsil of Khyber Agency.

Addressing a press conference at Landi Kotal Press Club, Malik Abdullah Khan, Haji Zarrhawar Khan, Haji Abdul Ghafoor and Sattar Gul said that routine life in the area had adversely been affected by prolonged and unscheduled power outages.

They said that entire population of Landi Kotal was faced with acute shortage of water as none of the water pumps and tubewells could be operated owing to excessive loadshedding.

“The schoolchildren and worshippers are the worst affected as water can’t be sufficiently provided to educational institutions and mosques,” they said.

They said that womenfolk ware also hit hard by the prolonged power outages as they were unable to fetch water, wash and iron clothes and prepare food for their families on time.

They said that those people, who had a water pump installed at their homes, were to wake up in the middle of the night to run the machine and fill their water tanks as electricity remained disconnected most of the time during day.

They asked the officials of political administration to provide solar energy in the tribal areas as a cover for the electricity deficiency. They said that residents of Landi Kotal were subjected to 20 hours of loadshedding on daily basis.

They also accused the local political administration of not listening to their demands. They threatened to block Peshawar-Torkham Road, close down all educational institutions, lay siege to the offices of political administration and refuse polio vaccine to their children if the unscheduled loadshedding was not ended immediately. They said that a jirga of Zakhakhel, Shalman and Shinwari elders would be convened within few days to devise their future line of action.