A rotten equation: Summoning PESCO gods equals 10 hours of suffering

Havelian residents protest against 18 hours of load shedding, disrupt traffic on Karakoram Highway for 10 hours.

ABBOTABAD:

Hundreds of people from Havelian on Sunday took to the street protesting against Peshawar Electric Supply Company Limited (Pesco) for long hours of power outages. They blocked the Karakoram Highway and suspended traffic for more than ten hours.

A local resident told The Express Tribune that there had been no electricity in Havelian since 18 hours.

The protesters lit a bonfire and barricaded the road with wooden logs and stones near Havelian Chowk, stranding the commuters in long queues of vehicles for hours in the hot weather.

They complained of long unscheduled power outages by Pesco since the last several months. They said whenever the enquire about the power cut, the authorities shift the blame on the main supply system of Burhan grid station or Islamabad.

“They broke all previous records of arbitrary load shedding and cut the electricity supply to the entire Havelian town for 18 hours,” said Sherdil Khan, a highly-charged speaker addressing the protesters.

The angry residents chanted full throat slogans against Pesco and the government. They warned of continued protest if their demand of ending the power outage during Ramazan was not met.

The single lane road from Abbottabad to Islamabad became a ‘daymare’ as traffic ground to a halt.

The Karakorum Highway connects China with Pakistan and eventually meets the Grand Truck Road at Hassanabdal. This single road bears the entire bulk of traffic from Karachi to Gilgit, including trucks, lorries and buses.

A police officer said, “The protestors blocked the main Havelian bridge (also known as Ayub bridge) at 12 noon.” He added the Abbottabad police have been summoned to help the local authorities deal with the traffic blockage, though the number of traffic wardens deployed to manage the situation was minimal at best.

The traffic backlog started from Abbottabad, Silhad, Gaurabad to Chamba, which is about 5-10 km from Haripur (itself about 45 km from Abbottabad).

It being a weekend, there was more traffic than usual -- the outward bound vehicles had haphazardly divided into five lanes on the single-file road, while incoming traffic slowly moved by in a single lane.

The 20-25 km long traffic jam from Abbottabad to Haripur was mostly being controlled by volunteers. At intervals of a few miles a few traffic policemen could be seen busy in their futile efforts to manage the traffic.

As time passed and temperatures increased, passengers slowly started to abandon their vehicles; the locals decided to walk toward their destinations while others took refuge under tree shades. Several passengers of public transport started to squabble with the drivers, demanding a refund on their fares.

A woman standing in a tree shade with her child said, “My child could not stand the heat so I came out though the wagon driver has warned me he won’t wait if the traffic moves.”

Ambulances, two or three wedding processions and worried parents, who were trying to calm their children in the heat, were amongst the many stranded.

The traffic would trudge a few inches in an hour and so most people had their air-conditioning turned off since there was no petrol pump nearby.

“People don’t have electricity and this is how they expect the problem to be solved,” said a frustrated bus driver whose passengers had slowly vacated his vehicle giving up all hope after waiting for hours.

The police and Pesco officials brokered a deal with the protesters about three hours into the protest, whereby the road was to be cleared. However the disruption in traffic continued till late on Sunday night, when this report was filed.

With additional input from Muhammad Sadaqat

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th,  2011.