The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), decrying the unavailability of essential services such as gas and electricity in Dera Ismail Khan, led a strong protest and sit-in here at GPO Chowk on Wednesday.
The protest and sit-in carried on for over two hours in the noon which was attended by PPP Central Information Secretary and candidate for NA-44 Faisal Karim Kundi, PPP candidates for PK-112 Ahmad Karim Kundi and PK-113 Azizullah Khan Alizai, Chief of Derawal Group and candidate for PK-113 Sohail Rajput and other local political leaders including Shafiq Chaudhry, Fazal Baloch, Hashmat Rehman Sadozai and Farhan Leghari. Besides, hundreds of party workers and residents also participated in the protest.
The participants were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans against gas and electricity load-shedding. They also chanted slogans against the WAPDA and SNGP departments. Addressing the protesting participants, Faisal Karim Kundi said the PPP always took a stand for people’s rights. He said the people of Dera Ismail Khan were deprived of their necessities like electricity and gas. He wondered that the people of the Dera were being punished for which mistake.
The WAPDA officials were themselves involved in electricity theft, he alleged and added the citizens were being proved as electricity thieves. The PPP information secretary said today the people staged a peaceful protest due to a lack of essential services such as gas and electricity. If the issue of Gas and electricity load shedding would not be resolved, the PPP will take the people out on the streets again. He said the PPP had invited all political parties to participate in this protest as it was a common issue of the residents. On this occasion, Chief of Derawal Group Sohail Rajput, Azizullah Alizai.—APP
