Short end of the stick: Residents suffer as legislators play politics over power

PESCO justifies 20 hours of load-shedding in most of Charsadda citing unpaid bills.

SHABQADAR:

Residents of Charsadda, especially its main tehsil of Shabqadar, are familiar with little or no electricity during the scorching summers of the North West. And as is the case every season, despite promises of power supply made by local politicians, they are braving the brutal summers with load-shedding of up to 20 hours a day.

The worst-off areas fall under the National Assembly constituency of Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, and provincial assembly seats of his son Sikandar Sherpao (PK-21), Khalid Khan Mohmand (PK-20) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Muhammad Arif (PK-22).

In PK-21 and 22, which comprise Shabqadar tehsil and border Mohmand Agency, power outages last around 20 hours a day. The excessive load-shedding has led to several protests against the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), with residents blaming the authority of diverting electricity meant for residential areas to industries.

When Aftab Sherpao was first elected as an MNA in 2002, electricity of 25 villages was cut off by Pesco over non-payment of bills for over three years. At the time, even though Sherpao was the water and power minister, he failed to get the power restored. In 2006, when general elections were less than a year away, Sherpao used his influence as the then interior minister to get power supply restored to the area and was thus able to secure his seat in the 2007 general elections.

During the previous provincial government, load-shedding increased exponentially in the area and the Awami National Party (ANP) government could do little to control it. Come the 2013 general elections, the ‘power’-less people replied: five of the six MPA seats that ANP had secured were lost, thanks to crafty politicking and exploitation by Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and PTI candidates.

Hollow promises

Shabqadar residents claim they should have known better than to expect the ruling lawmakers of the area to help curb load-shedding, as none of their elected representatives have ever kept their word with regards to the issue. However, Pesco officials claim that the issue is simple as only areas with low recovery face excessive outages.

“Even though residents, through local-level committees, have cleared almost all of the outstanding dues of Pesco, load-shedding still continues,” claimed a former provincial assembly candidate, Shahidullah. He said the issue does not have to do with outstanding dues as corrupt power officials receive hefty bribes by marble factory owners to divert electricity to their units, adding the factories do not even have meters installed in them.

As the public suffers, the QWP lawmakers who form the majority in the district avoid public wrath with the easy excuse that the government is to blame. This makes life difficult for the sole PTI MPA of the area, whose party leads the provincial coalition government. He too takes part in public protests against Pesco, a federal government entity.

Local leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which has a negligible vote bank in the area, have tried to gain sympathy of locals by announcing that Pesco would soon carry out only four hours of load-shedding in the area.

However, when contacted, a Shabqadar grid station official, Maqbali Khan, said only one to two hours of relief has been provided at the insistence of the PML-N government and the answer lies in consumers paying back the dues.

A local political activist, Nauroz Khan, said Pesco officials do as they please and local politicians continue with their blame game with protests until temperatures cool down in winters, only to spike with every accompanying summer.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2014.