LAKKI MARWAT - An infuriated mob gathered at a power grid station in Tajazai area on Sunday to protest against prolong power outages.
According to reports, residents of Tajazai came out of their houses and assembled on Indus Highway, which connects Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with other three provinces. They burnt tyres and blocked the road for traffic.
The closure of the highway for nearly one-and-a-half hours in sizzling heat caused problems for both the transporters and commuters especially women and children as passengers and goods transportation vehicles queued up on both sides of the road.
It is pertinent to mention here that Tajazai and its adjacent localities are hard hit by electricity loadshedding these days. It added to the miseries of local people and also caused acute shortage of drinking water in rural areas.  The protesters then moved towards 66KV grid station situated at Tajazai chowk and pelted the building with stones and bricks. They also damaged equipment, furniture and official record in the grid station.  Heavy contingent of police force headed by DPO Umar Riaz rushed to the area to control situation.  The protesters later dispersed and the highway was opened for traffic after police officials held successful talks with a delegation of elders.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League (N) provincial vice president Nasir Kamal Khan Marwat has threatened to launch a protest campaign if executive engineer and sub divisional officer of Pesco did not stop unscheduled electricity load shedding within three days.
Speaking at a press conference here the other day, he said that local officials of power supply company were involved in carrying out additional power outages in violation of official schedule for the purpose to hide their poor performance and cover line losses.
He was flanked by former district naib nazim advocate Arifullah Khan Meenakhel and Mansoor Kamal Khan Marwat.
The PML leader told that protracted power breakdowns had made the lives of the residents of entire district miserable to great extent.  “Area people have no option other than to come on roads against excessive power load shedding”, he maintained.
He told that tube wells could not run, consequently residents of Lakki city in particular and other parts of the district in general were facing the problem of shortage of water for drinking and other purposes. “Besides power fluctuation and low voltage have inflicted huge losses on people by causing damages to electric appliances”, he added.
Kamal also criticized the government for its alleged failure to overcome the energy crises and resolve other problems of masses. He also expressed his concern over the delay in launching construction work on city hospital up gradation project.
He said that the financial year was about to conclude and the funds released by the provincial government for the hospital project would lapse if not utilised.
He asked the government to take notice of prolong power outages and delaying of work on hospital project, warning that residents of the area will launch protest if higher official quarters did not pay any heed to resolve their genuine problems.