Tribal elders warn against power cuts in Waziristan

MIRANSHAH: The elders from all tribes in North Waziristan on Thursday asked the Wapda and Tribal Electric Supply Company (Tesco) to enhance the duration of power supply or else their installations would be uprooted and the staff would be expelled from the tribal district.

“Enhance the power supply duration from two hours to six hours in 24 hours by May 13 or we will remove power pylons and wires and lock the offices of Wapda and Tesco in the entire North Waziristan tribal district,” prominent elders from Dawar and Wazir tribes announced during a protest demonstration.

The elders, including Malik Usman Wazir, Malik Habibullah Dawar, Malik Muhammad Rahman, Malik Haqdad, Malik Amshadullah and others said that they had held several rounds of talks with the assistant commissioner to resolve the issue but the district administration seemed hapless. They complained that the power company was meting out injustices to the people of North Waziristan by subjecting them to hours long electricity loadshedding. The local residents, they added, now had no other option but to expel the staff and uproot the installations of Wapda and Tesco.