Power outages: PESCO employees turn against company

ABBOTABAD:

Peshawar Electric Supply Company employees  in Abbottabad launched a massive demonstration against prolonged power outages in Abbottabad on Tuesday. They boycotted office work, assembled outside the Hazara superintendent engineer office and shouted slogans against the government.

Led by WAPDA Hydro Electric Central Labour Union Vice Chairman Jamil Akhtar, the employees protested on the second consecutive day. Addressing the participants, Akhtar said the people hold company employees responsible for both announced and unannounced load-shedding in different areas and public demonstrations have often turned violent, with the helpless Pesco staffers at the receiving end of the trouble.

“Governments in the past 50 years have failed to repair the outworn power distribution system,” he said.

According to Akhtar, the 132-kilovolt distribution line that feeds power to the entire Hazara Division and Kashmir was installed half a century ago. “Despite repeated requests, they did not establish a 220-kilovolt grid station in Mansehra,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2015.