Leading protests against power breakdowns: KP govt stops police from action against MPs

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has stopped police from taking action against members of national and provincial assemblies for leading protests against hours-long power breakdowns in any part of the province.

Many protests were held during Eid against power breakdowns while hundreds of people led by respective MNAs or MPAs took control of gridstations at several places, resuming electricity supply to their areas.

The protests and blocking of main highways created a serious law and order situation for police.In many places, applications were submitted by the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) staff for lodging First Information Reports (FIRs) against lawmakers and their supporters for storming gridstations and other establishments and interfering in the official work of the staff.

However, the chief minister asked the KP Police not to lodge FIRs against any MNA or MPA. He even directed lawmakers to take visit gridstations and ensure that there were no power breakdowns for over 12 hours in any part of the province.

The chief minister had set a deadline for Pesco to improve the situation or else warned of taking control of grid stations.

During Eid, hundreds of protestors in a number of places were forced into the grid stations to resume power to their areas as most of the towns in KP witnessed unprecedented power breakdowns during the three days of the festival despite earlier claims by the government that there would be no load-shedding.

In Peshawar, MPA belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Fazal Ilahi, along with a large number of villagers staged a demonstration outside the gridstation on the Ring Road. He said the authorities had promised there would be no power breakdowns but the people continued to suffer because of outages. Protests were also held on Bara Road where elected representatives talked to the charged mob to open the highway.

Raees Khan Afridi, the brother of the Minister for Higher Education Mina Khan Afridi also staged a protest at the gridstation.The Nowshera City and Chowki Town people staged a massive protest against power and Sui gas loadshedding at different points.

The traffic was suspended for five hours on Nowshera-Mardan Road and GT Road. Another protest was led by local MNA . Former chief minister Pervez Khattak was also stuck during one such protest in Nowshera. The video went viral on social media but he was seen the least concerned about the issue as the people had not voted for him in the last elections.

The Pesco staff has filed applications with the KP Police for lodging cases against protestors, including some MPAs. But no FIR has been lodged against any lawmaker.The officials at Pesco, on the other hand, say the villagers do not pay bills in areas facing longer power breakdowns. They say the load-shedding duration is minimal in areas where revenue generation is high and people are paying bills.