Powerless: Shabqadar residents protest against prolonged outages

Locals claim electricity diverted to industrial feeder in exchange for a bribe.

SHABQADAR: Residents of Pir Qila in Shabqadar, Charsadda, took to the streets to protest against unannounced load-shedding reportedly lasting up to 16 hours a day and blocked main roads to Peshawar and Mohmand for around three hours on Wednesday morning.

People from around 25 villages accused a Pesco official of diverting their electricity supply to an industrial feeder in exchange for a massive bribe. They also demanded that an FIR be lodged against Pesco Shabqadar officials as their absence led to the death of a man named Zulfiqar, who was electrocuted while trying to fix the fault.

Residents said the supply had been suspended for 10 hours since early morning for no apparent reason and this compelled Zulfiqar to work on the power lines. Electricity was restored for a few seconds while he was doing this and Zulfiqar was electrocuted.

Shabqadar grid station in charge Maqbali Khan said power was being cut on the orders of operational superintendents of Pesco Shabqadar. Operational staff said that the line superintendents had suspended the power supply but were unable to provide a reason. An official, who chose to remain anonymous, said that power would be restored soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2014.