Tag: Khyber Pakhtunkhawa

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Pakistan: Enraged Khyber Pakhtunkhwa residents storm grid to restore power

People in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa entered the grid station after holding a protest outside its gate with heavy police deployment to deal with any potential law and order situation.

Angry residents of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday restored electricity by storming into the Hazar Khawani grid station, after prolonged loadshedding led to protests amid the scorching weather, Pakistan-based Geo News reported.

People in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa entered the grid station after holding a protest outside its gate with heavy police deployment to deal with any potential law and order situation.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Fazal Elahi, who led the protest, said that the elders of the area will restore electricity at the grid station.

Speaking to Geo News, Elahi said that the protesters will go to all feeders and restore electricity. He said, “If our electricity is cut off, everyone’s electricity will be cut off.”

Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) officials said that Fazal Elahi and protesters surrounded and stormed into the Rehman Baba grid station. Pesco officials further said that the protesters forcibly switched on nine high-loss feeders including Yaka Tut, Hazar Khawani, Akhunabad and Newchamkani.

The officials said, “Losses due to power theft and non-payment of dues on these feeders are more than 80 per cent,” adding that an operation will reduce the losses on these feeders, Geo News reported.

Meanwhile, the residents of Lahore also face unannounced loadshedding with some areas facing continuous power cuts for one hour every hour during the day, Geo News reported, citing a citizen.

Batapur, Manawan, Shahpur, and Shahdara and other areas have been impacted by prolonged loadshedding while unannounced loadshedding has affected Kot Lakhpat and Ferozepur Road. The demand for power is 4200 MW, however, the quota is 4000 MW, Geo News reported citing sources.

According to sources, Sabzazar grid station is facing tripping due to a blaze. Furthermore, pressure on other systems has witnessed a rise after fire erupted at a grid station.

The sources said, “Loadshedding on feeders in rural areas went on for several hours.” Loadshedding has further made the life difficult for residents of Lahore due to the ongoing heatwave across Punjab and Sindh.

Earlier on May 15, women and residents of Chota Lahor tehsil of Swabi in Pakistan’s Dera Ismail Khan blocked roads against prolonged power loadshedding on Wednesday, Pakistan-based Dawn reported. Women stormed the local grid station and blocked the road against “cruel” loadshedding, which lasted for over 20 hours a day.

The protesters shouted slogans against Peshawar Electric Supply Company, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, who both belong to Dera Ismail Khan, according to Dawn report. The protesting women shouted slogans against the public representatives and called for an immediate reduction in the load-shedding duration.

The women first held a protest outside the Pesco offices and later reached the grid station and blocked the road to traffic there. The protesters said political leaders made claims during the election campaign. However, they did not resolve the electricity problem faced by the people of Dera Ismail Khan after they secured victory.

The protesting women said Ali Amin Gandapur and Faisal Karim’s residences received uninterrupted electricity supply from different sources. They added that they would hold such representatives accountable and would not vote for them in the next polls. (ANI)

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Sikh woman’s abduction, forced conversion sparks outcry in Pak’s KP

Sikh community leaders alleged that police were playing the role of a “silent spectator”….reports Asian Lite News

Members of the Sikh community protested for a second day in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province against a woman’s alleged abduction, forceful conversion and marriage to a Muslim man.

“Dina Kumari, 25, a government teacher, went on duty on Saturday and did not return,” Dawn news quoted Sanat Singh, a relative of the woman, as saying. He added that the family had started a search for her but it was in vain.

He said the victim’s family members, along with other community members, had gathered in front of Pir Baba police station on Saturday, in whose limits the incident happened, and demanded the registration of the alleged incident, but the police refused to do so.

“When police showed reluctance to register an FIR, the family staged a protest outside the police station,” he said, adding that subsequently, the police had assured them of recovering the missing woman, Dawn reported.

The Sikh community again approached the police who informed them that she was recovered and she had married her neighbour, a Muslim man, in court.

“She was engaged and her marriage was planned for next month,” Singh said, alleging that she was forcibly converted to Islam and married, Dawn reported.

Another Sikh community leader, Radash Singh Tony, claimed that the woman was kidnapped, forcibly converted and married off but the police were playing the role of a “silent spectator”.

He said that when the community members met the district police officer on Saturday night, he had assured them that Kumari would be handed over to the family, but on Sunday, the police misbehaved with the family members and did not hand her over or register their report.

Tony demanded that the government reunite Kumari with the family.

Meanwhile, Buner DPO Abdur Rasheed rejected the family’s allegation while speaking to Dawn news, saying that the police recovered the woman and produced her before a magistrate in a local sessions court where she recorded her statement, confirming in the court that she converted to Islam and contracted marriage of her own free will and submitted the relevant documents.

He added that the court asked the police to move her to Darul Aman and provide her security, Dawn reported.

“The case is in the court. If the court orders of to register an FIR, the police will,” the DPO added.

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Infighting surfaces in Imran’s cabinet again

The defence minister while attending the meeting reportedly said that he would not vote for the Prime Minister if new gas connections were not given to the people of KP….reports Asian Lite News

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan faced an awkward situation during a meeting of the parliamentary party of the ruling alliance when Pak Defence Minister Pervez Khattak complained about the neglect of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) by the Centre, Dawn reported.

According to sources, the Prime Minister became angry and snubbed the defence minister for what he (PM) called “blackmailing” him.

The meeting held at the Parliament House was presided over by the Pak Prime Minister. The meeting cleared the controversial Supplementary Finance Bill-2022, commonly called the mini-Budget.

After the meeting, the Prime Minister sat in his chamber for almost the whole day and met a number of legislators hailing from his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and other parties in the ruling coalition, the report said.

The defence minister while attending the meeting reportedly said that he would not vote for the Prime Minister if new gas connections were not given to the people of KP.

However, Khattak told mediapersons after the meeting that he neither harshly talked to the Prime minister nor hurled any threat of not voting for PM Khan.

Sources said Khattak was of the view that KP was being neglected in terms of provision of electricity and gas while these facilities were being enjoyed by the people of other provinces. They said the defence minister told the Prime Minister that if the situation lingered on, the people of KP would not vote for the PTI, the report said.

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Fissure Within Imran’s Party Widens

Imran’s hybrid regime is crumbling

This was a defeat that Imran Khan had feared but not expected in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa since his relationship began to sour with the military establishment early this year, reports Asian Lite News

The internal rift in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is widening especially after party’s defeat in local elections of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa.

Amid these cracks in the party, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Higher Education Minister Kamran Bangash has served a legal notice to his own party leader Arbab Mohammad Ali for accusing him of selling ticket of Peshawar city Mayor to a businessman, media reported.

The KP minister on Tuesday had served a legal notice on Ali after he was accused of selling ticket of Peshawar city Mayor to a wealthy businessman and receiving 20 million Pakistani rupees out of the total amount, 70 million Pakistani rupees, according to The News International report on Thursday.

ALSO READ: Imran’s hybrid regime is crumbling

Ali is the brother of PTI MNA from Peshawar, Arbab Sher Ali and cousin of Arbab Shehzad, advisor to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Establishment.

He had applied for the PTI ticket for Peshawar Mayor seat but the party didn’t consider and instead gave the ticket to an Abu Dhabi-based businessman Rizwan Bangash, India Blooms reported.

Kamran Bangash (Credit: Twitter/Kamran Bangash)

Later, Ali released a video alleging that some senior PTI leaders including Governor Shah Farman and Higher Education Minister Kamran Bangash had sold party ticket to Rizwan Bangash for Rs70 million.

However, Rizwan lost the Mayor poll to the joint candidate of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazlur Rahman (JUIF), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP).

According to The News International, though there were multiple factors behind Rizwan’s loss but disunity of the PTI leadership and particularly the role of the party’s elected representatives were major reasons.

Crack in PTI, Army relations

The defeat of PTI in local elections of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa shows a clear sign of crack between the military establishment and the ruling party.

Khan’s ascendancy to the Islamabad throne was made possible by the army, especially Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and is often referred to as the hybrid regime showed signs of crumbling after the resounding defeat of PTI, reported The Singapore Post.

This was a defeat that Khan had feared but not expected in KP since his relationship began to sour with the military establishment early this year.

But the army quietly looked the other way and let the pins fall on the PTI candidates. This is the second round of the battle between partners of the hybrid regime.

In a first, Imran Khan had shown the military down by deliberately delaying the announcement of the appointment of ISI chief. The Army chief wanted a change in who heads the ISI early this year. The army declared Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum as the new ISI chief whereas Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, who had helped Imran Khan to win the electoral battles on behalf of the army, was moved out as Peshawar corps commander.

Imran Khan sat on the Army chief’s recommendation till rumours and conspiracy theories became thick enough to be cut with a blunt knife. Khan mulled all the options–to reject the army chief’s recommendations or to accept them. He chose the third option–delay the official declaration. It showed he was no longer in the same books as General Javed Bajwa.

The army took the insult and kept quiet, reported The Singapore Post.

The army played its hand in the KP elections. There could be many reasons for the PTI to get such a drubbing on the ground, but one remains the key to the game, the army’s decision to stay off any of the tricks which it deployed in the 2018 elections. This ‘hands off’ policy left PTI candidates to fight on their own and lose badly.

Protest over national security policy

Senators belonging to the Opposition parties in Pakistan resorted to protest on Wednesday over the governments decision to bypass the Parliament in the making of the National Security Policy (NSP) approved earlier this week, Express Tribune reported.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman said the government did not present the draft of the security policy in the House. The PPP leader said the policy that has been approved is nothing but a piece of paper that is contrary to the ground realities, the report said.

She further criticised the government over a Bill that provides complete autonomy to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in line with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demands. Sherry asked what sort of security is the government talking about when the IMF is dictating the economy, and the SBP is being sublet.

Imran Khan (Photo IN)

The PPP Senator’s speech was interrupted by a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator, Mohsin Aziz, who advised her to get straight to the point instead of making a speech. Rehman took offence to the remarks and staged a walkout in protest.

National Security Advisor (NSA) Moeed Yusuf had announced on Tuesday that the federal cabinet has approved Pakistan’s first-ever National Security Policy (NSP).

“It is a truly historic achievement; a citizen-centric comprehensive National Security policy with economic security at the core will now be pursued in earnest,” the NSA said in a tweet.

A day earlier, it was reported that the National Security Committee (NSC) approved the NSP 2022-2026, which aims at bolstering the country’s economic security and tackling external as well as internal challenges. (with inputs from IANS/ANI)

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