Angry Chitral residents threaten to block road

Non-repair of power houses

CHITRAL: The angry residents of two tehsils of the district have announced to block the road ahead of famous Shandur festival to protest the apathy of the provincial government, an elected representative said on Friday.

Member National Assembly (MNA) Iftikharuddin told reporters here that the provincial government was least interested in resolving the issues confronting the dwellers of the far-off district.

“Chitral is facing a virtual apartheid,” he said. He lamented that the power house of 1.8MW of the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) at Shishi area in Drosh has been dysfunctional for the last four months but the officials concerned were not interest to fix the fault despite repeated contact. The same was the case with the 4 MW power house at Reshun in upper Chitral which had been damaged by floods in July 2015.

“Rs 45 billion have been allocated for Nowshera, Rs 30 billion for Swabi and Rs 30 billion for Dir while Chitral is getting step-motherly treatment,” the MNA said He said the people of the two tehsils would block roads during the Shandur festival if the electricity was not restored by July 27.