Load-shedding: Shutter down strike in AJK

MUZAFFARABAD: A complete shutter-down strike was observed by traders in Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday against frequent power cuts and prolonged load-shedding. Traders and civil society activists including lawyers and journalists have already been staging a sit-in against load-shedding in front of the Muzaffarabad Press Club for the last 15 days. The protesters said if the authorities failed to take urgent steps to end the crippling power outages, they will soon devise a future action plan, which will include shutting down and besieging offices of the Water and Power Development Authority. A protest rally was also held in the state’s capital which, after passing through different areas, ended at the Ghari Pan Chowk. The participants shouted slogans against regional and federal governments, demanding immediate end to the power crisis which has ‘exacerbated in the last three months despite low demand in winter’.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2015.