Power outages in Upper Chitral protested

CHITRAL: Hundreds of people on Monday blocked the Chitral-Gilgit road to protest the unannounced and prolonged power outages in the Upper Chitral district.

The protesting residents blocked the Chitral-Gilgit road at Charon and Phokhair points for several hours to lodge their protest against the electricity loadshedding. Lambasting the federal government and local public representatives, including Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali and Maulana Hidayatur Rahman for frequent power loadshedding, the protesters said that uninterrupted electricity should be supplied from Golen Gol Hydropower Plant to Upper Chitral.

They threatened to stage a protest sit-in and block the Shandur Road for all kinds of traffic if their demands were not met forthwith.The residents said that former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had announced the construction of the Golen Gol Hydropower Plant and the provision of power to all the 100 villages and towns but later the successive governments did not honour his pledges.

The protesters accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government of the inclusion of electricity generated in the Golen Gol Hydropower Plant in the national grid, which was termed an injustice to the local people. Later, the protesters dispersed peacefully before vowing that they take the extreme steps, including the blocking of Shandur Raod, if their demands were not met.