Thousands protest inflated electricity bills in Mansehra

MANSEHRA: Thousands of people, including traders and local government representatives, on Thursday staged a protest in Garhi Habibullah against inflated electricity utility bills and blocked the road connecting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with neighbouring Azad Jammu and Kashmir the entire day.

“We have been facing power outages of over 16 hours a day, and our electricity utility bills which we received for July now are five to six times higher as compared to the corresponding month last year,” Yalmaz Khan, the chairman of the neighbourhood council, told protesters in Garhi Habibullah.

The traders observed the complete shutter-down strike and thousands of protesters blocked the Kashmir Road by setting tyres on fire.They raised slogans against the government and Peshawar Electric Supply Company, demanding immediate withdrawal of surcharges and tariff incorporated in bills by the government in recent months.

The passengers travelling between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan remained stranded for hours.The president of the Traders’ body in Garhi Habibullah, Mohammad Ashraf Awan said that the traders were facing economic losses hat owing to the suspension of electricity.

“The Pesco, despite daylong power outages, dispatched utility bills which we cannot afford to pay,” he added.The village council Karnol chairman Sajid Khan said that they would again block the Kashmir Road if their demands were not accepted.