Power woes: Residents of Drosh take to the streets

District admin vows to pay attention to their demands

CHITRAL: Residents of Drosh, Chitral took to the streets on Wednesday against the district administration for not paying attention to their demands. Later, the district administration vowed to heed their requests.

A large number of locals from Drosh held a massive shutters-down strike as they had warned the district administration a day earlier.

They pressed the district administration and the provincial government to investigate the alleged corruption in Shishi Powerhouse. Local also demanded sub engineer Ibrar at the powerhouse should be removed from his post and a written schedule of load-shedding should be prepared.

Over the past week, locals have been protesting in a sit-in at Drosh Chowk.

On Wednesday, the protesters blocked the main road leading to Peshawar from Chitral. The flow of traffic was disrupted and thousands of people — who were going for Shandur Polo Festival from Peshawar — were stranded on the route.

The chairperson of the protest committee and a member of the district council, Qari Inamul Haq, told the media the shutters-down strike bore fruit as their grievances were heard by the district administration.

The protesters ended their strike after Chitral DC Osama Warraich and the district administration vowed to meet their demands. Later, Warraich contacted National Accountability Bureau to probe the alleged corruption. He also decided to change the sub engineer against whom the corruption charges were levelled.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2016.