MOHMAND AGENCY - Angry protesters on Friday staged a protest demonstration against excessive loadshedding in front of press club and blocked the main Peshawar-Bajaur road for an hour in agency headquarters Ghalanai.
The protesters started their march from Ghalanai bazaar and assembled in front of Mohmand Press Club. They were chanting slogans against local administration and WAPDA and also burnt tyres on the main road.
Addressing the protesters, Mir Afzal Mohmand and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Sajjad Khan expressed concern over the excessive loadshedding in the area and asked the concerned officials and local administration to immediately end the excessive power outages in the area. They lamented that the local parliamentarians and WAPDA officials were unaware of the difficulties faced by the masses. They said that residents of Haleemzai, Lakaro, Mamad Gat, Qnadhrai, Chenanri and Gurbaz were facing problems due to the issue.
“There is 23-hour loadshedding in our areas and only one hour of power supply but even that is no regular,” Afzal said. The protestors further said that the residents of the area complained time and again to the WAPDA authority and also protested in the area but in vain.
They added that people were facing drinking water shortage and one cannot even find water for ablution and domestic use in the area owing to excessive loadshedding.
They warned that if the excessive loadshedding was not ended till Monday then they would start protest against WAPDA in the entire agency.
Khan complained that power outage creates miseries for the general public in the winter seasons. “Over 23-hour loadshedding in 24 hours is intolerable,” he said. They alleged that WAPDA authority and local administration in Mohmand failed to mitigate miseries of the people and that they had smoothly provided power supply to the steel factories while in villages power outages continue.
They said that voltage in their areas was also low which damaged their electronic appliances.
After the assurance of the Assistant Political Agent Ghalanai Haseebur Rehman the protesters dispersed peacefully.
