CHITRAL: The participants of an All Party Conference (APC) held in Muroi Bala area of Chitral demanded supply of electricity to Koh valley.
On this occasion, former MNA Shahzada Iftaruddin was chief guest while the conference was presided over by former MPA Moulvi Abdul Rahman. In the APC, the elders of the area said that the area near to 107 MW of Goleen Power house in Lower Chitral more than 25,000. Population are still deprive from power supply for the last eleven months. This area was previously supplied electricity from the Reshon hydropower plant of the provincial PEDO (Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization) department, but in 2015, the Ration power plant was destroyed due to floods and was restored after six years in 2021. Meanwhile, the area was supplied electricity by the WAPDA power plant. PESCO (Peshawar Electricity Supply company) but last year there was a dispute between the provincial and federal electricity department i.e. PEDO and PESCO over line loss and tariff i.e. electricity rate because WAPDA’s electricity is very expensive per unit and PEDO’s electricity is cheaper as comparative to WAPDA. . As a result of this dispute, this area has been deprived of electricity for the last eleven months.
The elders of the area warned that if this problem was not solved as soon as possible, then people will boycott and disconnect the electricity that supplying here for only 3 hours in 24 hours and at the same time we will be forced to go out on roads including women and children too.
Leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Pakistan Muslim League-N, Awami National Party, Pakistan People’s Party and other political and religious parties also expressed their views at All Parties Conference.
Talking to the media, residents including students o expressed their frustration and regret over the difficulties they faced due to lack of electricity. The people of the area warned that if the political leaders do not solve this problem, then no candidate in this area should bother to ask for votes, we will not cast our vote for anyone. They warned that if this problem is not solved. So we will once again compel for protest and maybe we will also disconnect the power line that has passed through our lands and houses.
The conference was attended by a large number of people from Districts Lower and Upper Chitral who were completely non-politically gathered on only one point agenda, demanding from provincial and federal government for power supply. The conference was attended by students and people of the area in large numbers who had only one demand to give us electricity. The All Parties Conference concluded with prayer words of Moulvi Abdul Samad.
