When I visited after a gap of a few years, the growing darkness in the valley terrified me and I quickly drove away.
CHITRAL: Nostalgia frequently creeps over me whenever I recall my visits to Bakarabad village from where I used to experience the amazing and breathtaking view of the Chitral Valley. I still remember the glittering of electric lights like fireflies and their reflection on the Chitral River.
The whole valley lies in the laps of the perpetually snow-capped Karakoram ranges. It looked like a place where fairies would live. But my recent visit to the same place unfurled a dismal picture. Due to rampant load-shedding, the valley of lights seemed to me like a ‘valley of darkness’. When I visited after a gap of a few years, the growing darkness in the valley terrified me and I quickly drove away to take refuge in a place where I could have access to a source of light.
The story of how we reached this era of darkness is definitely not a long and complicated one. When politicians become opportunists and harass village after village for votes without delivering a single watt of power there, the consumers and voters are crushed by high prices, corruption and injustices.
The consumers of electricity in Chitral don’t have the power or the numbers to come out on the streets to protest and ask for their rights. They still pay their electricity bills on time and experience more than 20 hours of load-shedding even though the amount of electricity bills just keeps on increasing. Who will fight for these unfortunate people?
Bashir Hussain Azad
Published in The Express Tribune, July 25th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
