PESCO grid station shuts down a day after ‘violent’ protest

PESHAWAR: The Rehman Baba grid station of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) was shut down a day after protesters forcefully activated feeders, causing a grid fault and disrupting power supply to 32 feeders, ARY News reported on Friday.

A row between the Centre and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on loadshedding resurrected after KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur issued another ultimatum, telling the PESCO — the province’s main power utility company — to reduce outages on all grids to 12 hours a day.

The KP chief minister issued similar directives for the rest of the province and asked the lawmakers to enter grid stations and restore power.

Following his footsteps, a number of PTI lawmakers visited respective grid stations to forcibly end the loadshedding over the Eid holidays.

In a statement, the PESCO spokesperson said Rehman Baba grid station in Rahim Yar Khan was shut down after protesters forcefully activated feeders, causing a grid fault and disrupting power supply to 32 feeders.

“The incident occurred at 2pm today when protesters entered the grid station and forcefully turned on the feeders, overloading the system and causing a fault that led to the suspension of power transmission,” he added.

The spokesperson alleged that the protesters also clashed with PESCO staff, using abusive language and snatching mobile phones. “PESCO teams are currently working to repair the damage, and it may take several hours to restore power supply,” he added.

The constant interference by protesters has increased the difficulties of PESCO consumers, the spokesperson added.

A day earlier, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Atta Tarar took a jibe at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister (CM) Ali Amin Gandapur for ‘storming’ grid station in Dera Ismail Khan.

Addressing a presser in Islamabad, the minister said that if the chief minister could take 100 people to the grid station, he could take 1000 there.

Atta Tarar said that the issues of electricity and line losses should be resolved by the centre and the provinces together, with mutual understanding and cooperation.

“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is also a part of our country. We all have to come on one page to facilitate the people. The country can develop by solving the issues of power theft and line losses,” he added.

Attaullah Tarar said that some people go to the entertainment places on the eve of Eid and some go to the grid station. “We are not the ones who burnt the bills,” the minister added.