Shaukat Hayat Buneri
THE Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa comprising 7 districts of Buner, Swat, Shangla, Malakand, Dir Lower, Dir Upper and Chitral is no doubt the most neglected region of the province due to the pathetic response of the successive governments. The problems and difficulties of the dwellers of this serine valley are multiplying day by day. Majority of the people living in hilly and far flung areas are confronted with a very tough task of life and are not capable of living a decent and civilized existence in this era of modern technology. Even they have no right to get access to the basic facilities often available to the people of other regions at their doorsteps. The successive rulers and public representatives always deceived them with their tall claims and hollow slogans and did nothing to ameliorate their lot. The incumbent elected representatives of both the provincial and central governments too deviated from their stance to ameliorate their lot after being voted into power by them. The people of the region are still attaching high hopes to the rulers for the fulfilment of their genuine demands. But it is being felt that once again they will be silenced with mere tall claims and cached slogans.
The series of excessive and unscheduled power outage continues unabated in almost all the regions and districts of Malakand Division. Not only is this but also the people of those areas where gas is available are confronted with a double myth and they have to face the worst load shedding of gas and electricity at the same time. For example the inhabitants of districts of Malakand, Swat and especially of Mingora city have to face the acute shortage of gas and electricity simultaneously. Similarly it has also been learnt and verified by this scribe that people of Buner district have been entangled in the grip of the worst kind of load shedding these days. The duration of load shedding has increased from 12 to 18 hours a day. Around 400 marble factories operating in the district have been badly affected by this menace. As a result thousands of poor laborers’ have been deprived of bread and butter for their families largely depending on their manual work. Alongside the marble factory owners have also suffered huge financial losses due to the ongoing pace of power outage.
Besides, the acute water shortage has also made the life of the people miserable and they are compelled to fetch water from the far flung and remote areas to fulfill their needs and growing demand for drinking water. The reason is obvious before us. The availability of water provision mostly depends upon the tube wells. But tube wells often remain non-functional due to severe load-shedding. Second, the official work has also been affected badly after the occurrence of the power outage. The people of the area say that despite the fact that load-shedding is the collective problem of the whole nation while unified and scheduled load shedding is done in the whole country, but ironically the people of Buner are treated step motherly by the WAPDA authorities. Therefore the higher authorities must take stock of the situation and take urgent measures for the curtailment of this menace so that the poor dwellers of the area take a sigh of relief. On the other side the inhabitants of Swat and other districts are also passing through a tougher time these days.
With the advent of the summer season, the time period of unannounced load-shedding has increased manifold. Referring to the prevailing situation in the region, the people are of the view that WAPDA has turned into a white elephant and the government clutches are weak over them. They keep on saying that although the government circles are making tall claims to overcome the crises but failed to resolve the issue in a practical sense. But the crux of the matter is that the relevant authorities have turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to redress the issue once and for all. They were also of the opinion that the people of the Division have been encircled by all kinds of problems and adversities. The purchasing capacity of the poor have fallen down to an unbelievable extent. And if the relevant quarters did not redress the issue on an emergency footing, the people will ultimately come to street to press the government for the resolutions of their demands. Similarly, the people living in Shangla, Dir, Chitral and Malakand have complained about the multitude of problems being faced by them. Particularly their routine life has been paralyzed due to worst power load-shedding. To sum up the diversion of the attention of the public representatives and their criminal silence over the issue condemnable at least.
—The writer is freelance columnist, based in District Buner.
