Protesters demand end to long power cuts

LAKKI MARWAT/MINGORA: The students held a demonstration in Lakki city to record their protest against excessive power outages and low voltage problems.

Led by a youth leader Faisal Kamal Meenakhel, the protesters passed through different roads and converged at Qazi Ashfaq Chowk on main bus stand.

The protesters were carrying placards highlighting the demands to stop unscheduled and long power suspensions in the urban locality.

MINGORA: The protesters blocked the main road in Matta tehsil, the native area of the chief minister, to protest against power outages.

Protesters told reporters that prolonged power outages left patients, senior citizens and infants in hospitals and homes without water in this hot summer.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had recently said that a new feeder was being installed in Swat to ease the situation. However, the hours-long loadshedding was continuing in the district.

The residents said they were forced to throw the meat of sacrificial animal into the rivers as they had no alternative to keep meat fresh due to heavy loadshedding.

CHITRAL: Residents of Sonogor and Parvak villages in Upper Chitral also staged protest against prolonged loadshedding despite availability of surplus electricity from Golen Gol Hydropower project.

Speakers on the occasion, the residents said 20-hours long loadshedding was being carried out in Upper Chitral on daily basis.

The protesters also condemned the absence of resident engineer of the organisation from Chitral and threatened to block the roads if the situation did not improve by September 2.

NOWSHERA: Infuriated dwellers of Kheshgi Bala village on Saturday staged a protest against the unannounced electricity loadshedding by blocking Nowshera-Charsadda road for nearly an hour.

The protesters chanted slogans against Wapda while holding different placards.

Addressing the protesters, Kheshgi Bala Village Nazim Qalandar Khan and others said that Pesco officials had started unjustified power cuts in the hot weather, also leading to water shortage at mosques and houses in the area.

They vowed to continue protest till the local Pesco officials assured them of solving the problem.

Meanwhile, local police officials from Nowshera Kalan Police Station held negotiations with the protesters and they dispersed.