KP Assembly warns against power loadshedding during Eid

PESHAWAR: There should be no electricity load-shedding during Eidul Azha days, ruled deputy speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday, saying that 20 hours long outages were unbearable.

Presiding over the assembly session, Deputy Speaker Mehmood Jan ruled the Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (Pesco) should refrain from carrying out load-shedding during Eid days, as power suspension for 20 hours can’t be accepted.

“I am directing the Pesco that there should be zero percent load-shedding during Eid days,” he stated, saying consumers would not tolerate more load-shedding. Earlier, Waqar Ahmad Khan of the Awami National Party (ANP) on a point of order said that two labourers in Swat were injured when a wire of 11000 kv line fell on them on July 28.

One of the two labourers succumbed to injuries and the other one was admitted to Hayatabad Medical Complex in a critical condition. Falling of power supply line wire was criminal negligence of the Pesco, he added.

Fazle Elahi of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) also supported Waqar Khan’s complaints against Pesco, saying consumers had got fed up with the electricity problems. He warned of launching a protest campaign if the power load-shedding was not ended.

The PTI MPA said power supply remains cut off for hours in the scorching heat. Due to Pesco negligence, power supply lines can be seen hanging at various points in the provincial capital, he added.

Fazle Elahi said consumers have to get repaired power transformer if it goes out of order. He sought a meeting of lawmakers with the Wapda and the minister concerned, or else people would be forced into protests as they can no more bear the Wapda cruelties.

Sardar Ranjeet Singh, through a call attention notice, drew the House attention towards non-implementation on job quota for minorities in government departments. He complained that many governments departments were not implementing the 5 percent quota reserved for minorities.

Replying to the point, Food Minister Qalandar Lodhi said that action should be taken against the departments not implementing the five percent quota for minorities. Minister for Labour and Culture Shaukat Yousufzai said the government departments were bound to implement the job quota reserved for minorities. He said the departments not following the five percent quota should be identified.

The House unanimously passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khassadar Force (Amendment) Bill, 2020 while the KP Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was also presented. The deputy speaker had to adjourn the session till 3rd August for lack of quorum was pointed out because only 21 members were present in the House.