Electricity remained suspended in most parts of the provincial metropolis on the first and second days of Ramazan exactly at the Sehr and Iftar times. Same was the situation in other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where electricity has already become a luxury.

On a daily basis 10 to 12 hours loadshedding is carried out in urban and about 18 hours in rural areas of the province, which is generating the most inexpensive hydel power two times greater than its requirements.

One Kifayat from Timergara, Lower Dir district, complained about non-availability of electricity for 16 to 20 hours daily in his area. Meanwhile, consumers in southern districts of the province said they were sick of problems due to power breakdowns.

Fazal Gul from Dargai, a town having three power generating units, complained that the government had failed to fulfil the promise of not carrying out loadshedding at least during Sehr and Iftar.

“No light was available on the first and second Sehar and the faithful faced immense hardships. Are the leaders not aware of the advent of Ramazan?” he posed a question.

The general public is of the opinion that the Pakistan People’s Party leaders in the federal government have been relying on false promises since inception of the government, especially over the issue of end to the loadshedding. They argue that the Awami National Party-led provincial set-up has also compromised on the rights of the people by not ensuring adequate power supply.

They criticised the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), a power distribution entity, for keeping mum over injustices to power consumers in the province. “Neither the provincial government nor the Pesco authorities ever bothered to raise the issue of its due share in the electricity but blindly followed the power shutdown formula prepared by the Wapda,” alleged an angry consumer.

The consumers complained that Pesco was not complying with the Peshawar High Court orders on uniform loadshedding and was carrying out excessive outages in remote rural areas. They said the localities where the ruling elite, including the Wapda high-ups, resided were either exempt from the power loadshedding or subjected to minimum shutdown.

Our correspondent from Mingora adds: The residents of various areas in Swat have complained of water shortages in the district due to the unscheduled loadshedding.They complained that power outages during Sehr and Iftar had been creating problems for them.

“Normal life has been disturbed due to power outages. The government should at least provide us some respite during the holy month of fasting,” a consumer said. The locals asked the officials of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company to minimise the duration of loadshedding during Ramazan.