Assembly session: Loadshedding draws lawmakers’ ire

Deputy speaker claims he has evidence of WAPDA’s corruption.

PESHAWAR: The issue of power outages in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) dominated the opening of the provincial assembly session, where lawmakers from both the government and opposition benches came down hard on Wapda and termed the prolonged power cuts as an “injustice to the province which generates the major chunk of the country’s hydel power.”

They were of the view that prolonged and unscheduled power outages had completely paralysed routine life in the province.

Talking on the floor of the house, Deputy Speaker Khushdil Khan held Wapda employees responsible for loadshedding.

“Our voters are constantly criticising us for not being able to supply electricity in this modern age but it seems as if Wapda employees are not bothered about peoples’ woes,” he remarked.

“I have evidence of Wapda employees in PK-10 taking Rs200 as bribe for every illegal electricity connection,” the deputy speaker added.

Later during the session, Javed Abbasi of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) brought the issue of 200 schools being destroyed in the province. “Thousands of students are studying under the open sky in Hazara, as their schools have not been rebuilt since the earthquake in 2005, forcing them to study in freezing cold, “ he pointed out.

K-P Education Minister Sardar Babak Hussain, replying to Abbasi, said the present government had rebuilt 80 per cent of the schools. He also said the ministry was in contact with donor agencies and the remaining schools would be rebuilt soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2011.