As a form of protest, residents carried out a mock funeral prayer of Minister of Water & Power Abid Sher Ali. PHOTO: ONLINE
Tank city and its surrounding areas of Kot Azam Fader and Dabara Fader have been bearing the brunt of excessive load-shedding.
Protesters on Wednesday blocked the main road linking DI Khan with Wana, South Waziristan by putting burnt tyres on the road and suspending traffic for several hours. They also raised slogans against the district, provincial and federal governments.
“Tank district has been suffering from power outages since a long time, but no one is trying to fix the situation. People are even deprived of drinking water because of this,” Sherpao Advocate said, while addressing protesters. He added it was inhumane to deprive people of electricity for over 20 hours in a day.
Malik Janan Mehsud, one of the men leading the protest, said Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s Fazlur Rehman and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Kundi “were begging us for votes” before the elections but now they are nowhere to be seen. We will do everything it takes to make our voices heard, he added.
The protesters warned if load-shedding continues for its present duration they will not refrain from taking extreme measures such as boycotting vaccination drives and halting the supply of electricity from the Gomal Zam Dam in South Waziristan to other parts of the country.
The protesters dispersed after officials of the district government assured them the issue will be resolved soon.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 17th, 2014.
COMMENTS (16)
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@noman1234:
Easy there tiger, don't shoot the messenger! Try straightening out the affairs of PESCO by way of curbing massive power theft being done by the active encouragement of folks like Shah Farman and then maybe just maybe the Federal Government can contemplate handing over power generation in its entirety to KPK Government.
@Adnan Siddiqi: Yeah so why don't they go ahead and collect the bills as well, After all it is the Federal governments responsibility. I know you're a PMLn fanboy but stop talking like the federal government is its own country, the federal govt gets its resources from the provinces.
@Adnan Siddiqi: Stop being a PMLN chamcha and think like a Pakistani. If federal Govt can't handle PESCO then it should hand it over in its entirety with sincerity to KPK as it is also part of Pakistan, hope they do a better job, and improve it for betterment of Pakistan.
They will take every negative and harmful step but they will never take any positive step e.g. boycotting "Naswaar" or..
those who steel electricity not only stopped power supply but also fined heavily.
@Lobster:
KPK Government chickened out of even taking over the affairs of PESCO as offered by the PM and Federal Government. Furthermore, KPK demands of controlling the generation is egregious to say the least. Its the Federal Government which has invested billions in the power generation infrastructure through its own resources and sovereign guarantees. Why should that aspect be handed over to KPK?
Going against vaccination drive is idiotic. Blocking electricity supply is most rational. Afterall these are the people paying for the negative externalities associated with big dams.
This is HILARIOUS!
@Adnan Siddiqi: Power generation and distribution is responsibility of Federal government. The Fed gov should avail the offer of KPK government and hand over complete generation and power responsibility to provincial government
Naya Pakistan
Wonder if they'd do for the same for power thieves as power theft is highest in KP and Fata
If they are paying their electricity bills on time, this is unfair.
PTI's provisional assembly members have to stop condoning power theft in the their respective constituencies.
How strange that people expect to decline the load-shedding by halting the supply of electricity.