Power woes: Loadshedding brings life to standstill
People speak out against power outages, political parties point fingers at government.
SWAT:
More than 20 hours of loadshedding in Swat has led to district-wide protests by people of all occupations. Grade IV servants staged a protest in this regard, demanding the government to “stop the ill- treatment of poor masses”. Sayed Khitab, their president, said “The government should stop the step-motherly treatment of Swat. Loadshedding has paralyzed routine life these days.”
On the other hand, senior members of political parties blamed the government for the predicament, declaring it to be a planned act. “This is not a real crisis but a deliberate act from the rulers. Unscheduled loadshedding has created a lot of water shortage as well as countless problems in hospitals,” said a senior member of the Pukhtunkhwa Awami party, Khalid Mahmood.
“Electricity has become a joke. The light blinks for a minute or so after four to six hours of load shedding,” said Farman a labourer, “We bring water from a distance of four kilometre in vehicles and are fed up of our routine. We do not know where to escape from this country, the rulers are in the lap of luxury while we are being grinded into pieces.”
Provincial Minister for Forests Wajid Ali Khan spoke to the PESCO chief on the matter. He urged the chief to resolve the matter immediately as Swatis had already suffered a lot at the hand of the floods and militancy. “The long hours of load shedding is not only affecting their social life but has also harmed the economy greatly, as all the factories are shut down, which in turn has created famine in the area,” he said. The PESCO Chief assured to lessen the duration of loadshedding by the next 24 hours in Swat.
President Swat Traders Federation (STF) Abdul Rahim told The Express Tribune, “It cannot be termed loadshedding only, it is extreme barbarism. Our businesses are running into complete losses and our families are greatly inconvenienced.” STF also met with XEN PESCO and informed them about the miseries of common people and
traders regarding loadshedding in Swat.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 6th, 2011.
More than 20 hours of loadshedding in Swat has led to district-wide protests by people of all occupations. Grade IV servants staged a protest in this regard, demanding the government to “stop the ill- treatment of poor masses”. Sayed Khitab, their president, said “The government should stop the step-motherly treatment of Swat. Loadshedding has paralyzed routine life these days.”
On the other hand, senior members of political parties blamed the government for the predicament, declaring it to be a planned act. “This is not a real crisis but a deliberate act from the rulers. Unscheduled loadshedding has created a lot of water shortage as well as countless problems in hospitals,” said a senior member of the Pukhtunkhwa Awami party, Khalid Mahmood.
“Electricity has become a joke. The light blinks for a minute or so after four to six hours of load shedding,” said Farman a labourer, “We bring water from a distance of four kilometre in vehicles and are fed up of our routine. We do not know where to escape from this country, the rulers are in the lap of luxury while we are being grinded into pieces.”
Provincial Minister for Forests Wajid Ali Khan spoke to the PESCO chief on the matter. He urged the chief to resolve the matter immediately as Swatis had already suffered a lot at the hand of the floods and militancy. “The long hours of load shedding is not only affecting their social life but has also harmed the economy greatly, as all the factories are shut down, which in turn has created famine in the area,” he said. The PESCO Chief assured to lessen the duration of loadshedding by the next 24 hours in Swat.
President Swat Traders Federation (STF) Abdul Rahim told The Express Tribune, “It cannot be termed loadshedding only, it is extreme barbarism. Our businesses are running into complete losses and our families are greatly inconvenienced.” STF also met with XEN PESCO and informed them about the miseries of common people and
traders regarding loadshedding in Swat.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 6th, 2011.