ANP demands Rangers takeover of WAPDA in K-P to end power theft

Senior leader Ghulam Ahmad Bilour says PTI running its politics on the issue of power outages

PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party demanded on Wednesday that the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) should be handed over to the Rangers force so that power theft could be prevented.

"If Rangers can be used in Karachi and Balochistan, then why not in K-P too but for stopping electricity theft only," former minister and ANP leader Ghulam Ahmad Bilour said at a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club.

"The ANP has always stood against the military interference in civilian affairs, but this time we are compelled to ask for and accept Rangers’ presence,” he remarked.

"Hopefully, the paramilitary force will bring an end to power theft in K-P," he added.

“Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif should sit with the K-P chief minister and chief secretary and work together to ensure the arrest those involved in electricity theft."



The former minister further said K-P generated more electricity than it needed to meet its own as well as Federally Administered Tribal Areas' demand, but the federation managed power distribution and the province received the short end of the stick.

“The Warsak Dam was constructed through the province’s own resources but has been handed over to the federation under the one unit policy,” he added.

Bilour said the party's senior leadership would lead a protest against unscheduled and prolonged power outages in the provincial capital.

He claimed that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was running it politics on the issue of power outages. “The K-P government can end electricity theft, but it is itself involved in it,” he alleged.