Residents warn of road blockades over power loadshedding

MANSEHRA: Local government representatives, traders and residents of Garhi Habibullah on Tuesday warned the Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (Pesco) to end prolonged power outages in the area or else they would block arteries connecting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

“We are facing daylong power outages in scorching heat resulting in elderly people and children falling unconscious frequently. If the Pesco doesn’t end prolonged loadshedding by Thursday, we will block traffic from KP to AJK and GB in protest,” Fahd Yalmaz Khan the chairman of Garhi Habibullah Neighbourhood Council, told a presser.

Flanked by the chairman of Bisan Jaggier Village Council Liaqat Khassan, president of traders body Changaz Khan and jirga member Naseer Anwar and Youth councilor Shahid Bashir, he said that a jirga held earlier in the day had decided to block Mansehra-Kashmir and Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad roads if prolonged loadshedding was not brought to an end.

“The Pesco, though have issued a load-shedding schedule of six hours at the Garhi Habibullah electric feeder and 12 hours at the Bowi electric feeder but we are facing power suspension of over 18 hours a day,” Fahd Yalmaz Khan said.

Liaqat Khassan told reporters that at the end of jirga a delegation, including LG reps, traders and local elders met with Balakot Assistant Commissioner Basharat Bibi and Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammad Farooq and apprised them of their resentments.

“We have also informed both officers of district administration and Police Department of our protest to suspend traffic from KP to GB and AJK if prolonged power outages continue to trouble locals in the scorching heat wave in the region,” he said.Speaking on the occasion, the president of the traders’ body Changaz Khan said business activities were adversely affected in the area that because of the prolonged poweroutages.