PESHAWAR, July 30: The Awami National Party ruling Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday announced to support protests against excessive loadshedding in the province and said it would hold an all parties conference and a special meeting of the provincial assembly to develop consensus on how to ease energy crisis.
The announcement was made by ANP provincial president Senator Afrasiab Khattak during a news conference at Peshawar Press Club.
“We support peaceful power protests as unprecedented loadshedding is unbearable and thus, unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Khattak said Water and Power Development Authority had completely failed to overcome excessive unscheduled loadshedding and it was time that the government should dissolve it and let provinces resolve their energy-related problems themselves after giving them due share of electricity.
He said prolonged power cuts and the people’s agitation against them brought a bad name to the government and were against the interests of the federation.
“The policy of centralised power distribution is absolutely wrong,” he said.
Giving details of power generation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the ANP leader said Tarbela dam could produce 3,478 megawatts followed by Warsak dam with 240MW, Malakand III dam with 81MW, Dargai dam with 20MW, Kurram Tangi dam with 4.8MW, Pehyur dam with 18MW and Sish dam with two megawatts.
He added that Ghazi Brotha dam produced more than 2,400MW electricity by using waters of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Mr Khattak said work on several power projects, including 120MW Dubair Khwar, 124MW Alayi, 18MW Kohistan and some in Chitral and Swat, was underway and its completion ease power crisis.
“Despite huge share in the central power production system, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is being subjected to 18 hours long unannounced loadshedding, which is an injustice to the people of the province,” he said.
The ANP leader said his party had always called for grant of autonomy to provinces as for exploration of energy and gas resources.
He said it was against the spirit of 18th constitutional amendments to carry out unjustified power and gas loadshedding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Mr Khattak said the Constitution had clearly stated that locals had the right to get facilities of their respective areas on priority basis but the people of the province were being denied the same.
“We want political solution to energy crisis and therefore, want to hold an APC on August 9 for devising a joint strategy with all political parties at province level to cope with energy crisis, especially unprecedented loadshedding,” he said.The ANP leader said a high-level delegation of his party would shortly meet leaders of different political groups and invite them to the conference in order to develop consensus on the matter. He also said a special session of the provincial assembly would be convened to discuss one point i.e. loadshedding and energy crisis.
Mr Khattak said only Tarbela dam could meet the demand of the province but the federal government was reluctant to help it in this respect.
He said under the Article 158 of the Constitution, even one minute of loadshedding was not allowed. He demanded increase in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s net hydel profit and its timely payment.
Senior minister of the province Bashir Ahmad Bilour, information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, and ANP MNAs and MPAs also attended the news conference.
Meanwhile, railways minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour on Monday criticised Wapda for denying due share of electricity to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and said the situation had forced people in the province to agitate.
Mr Bilour told a news conference at Peshawar Press Club that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa generated 3,136 megawatts of electricity and needed 2,800MW, but Wapda gave it 1,300 megawatts only leading to an acute shortage of electric supply.
The minister said the country produced 12,000MW only, while the demand was around 18,000MW with a shortfall of 5,000MW.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has one third share in the central power production system and therefore, the federal government should at least ensure provision of due power share to it,” he said.