Traders protest power cuts, heavy taxes

CHARSADDA: The office-bearers of traders’ unions and shopkeepers on Monday staged a protest outside the Wapda office and blocked the Charsadda-Mardan Road for traffic against the hours-long electricity loadshedding, heavy taxes and price-hike.

The protesters chanted slogans against the Wapda and demanded the government to end frequent power outages forthwith.Addressing the protesters, Mutahidda Shopkeepers president Hakimullah Khan, Tajir Ittehad president Iftikhar Hussain Saraf, All Traders Association president Lal Muhammad Khan said that they were experiencing the worst kind of electricity loadshedding due to which their businesses had badly been affected.

They complained that the Wapda had also started further prolonging the hours of electricity loadshedding, which was now leading their businesses towards a grinding halt.They said that the government had also levied various heavy taxes. Price-hike and inflation had also made life miserable for the traders and the people as well.

“The masses are fed up with the policies of rulers as they had multiplied their miseries by jacking up the prices of electricity, gas and petroleum products as well as heavy taxes on traders and business community,” Lal Muhammad Khan said, adding that people were unable to provide a meal to their children.