K & P

Lights out: Residents demonstrate over faulty transformer

PESCO repaired the transformer months ago but it malfunctioned.

Our Correspondent October 02, 2014

KHWAZAKHELA:

Residents took to the street on Thursday after Pesco (Peshawar Electric Supply Company) failed to repair a faulty transformer in Khwazakhela tehsil.

The protesters blocked main GT Road for two hours and shouted slogans against Pesco’s failure to repair the transformer. “Our electricity has been suspended for the last four months because the transformer in Khwazakhela Bazaar broke down,” Ibrahim, a shopkeeper, told The Express Tribune.

Khawazakhela Assistant Commissioner Ghulam Said Khan, DSP Yousaf Ali and other officials arrived on the scene and urged protesters to not block the road. The officials pledged the matter would be resolved immediately.

According to the residents, they had asked Pesco to repair the transformer but the power supply company did not cooperate with them.

Pesco officials had repaired the transformer some months ago but it broke down on the very same day, insiders familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune. Since Khwazakhela is far away from Mingora, it is difficult for Pesco officials to promptly repair the transformer, they added.

^{Grind to a halt}

^Over the past four months, shopkeepers in Khwazakhela Bazaar have faced numerous challenges. Their businesses were paralysed without electricity, making it difficult to make ends meet.

“Businesses which rely on electricity have been affected and their owners are facing financial problems,” said Sher Alam Khan, president of Traders Association Khwazakhela. He added, “Tailors, computer designers and other shopkeepers have been forced to borrow money to put food on the table.”

Akbar Ali, a tailor in Khwazakhela Bazaar, does not have money to pay his children’s school fees.

“I have been borrowing money for their food for the last four months. I don’t even have money to pay my children’s school fee, let alone buy them Eid clothes,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2014.