Residents of Battagram took to the streets and blocked a stretch of the Karakoram Highway near the Khatm-i-Nabuwat Chowk on Saturday, decrying action against illegal connections (kundas) and electricity connections, as well as defaulters.
Last week, the interim government announced plans to launch a crackdown on electricity theft, which federal ministers said led to combined losses of hundreds of billions of rupees and higher bills for the common citizen. The announcement came as the government, facing the ire of agitated masses over inflated electricity bills in August, mulled its options to placate the people who have been out on streets across the country.
There have been reports of widespread crackdowns on pilferers in several areas since.
As the action continued, residents in several areas of Battagram, mainly Ajmera and Chappargram, came out in the streets against the local administration officials Saturday. They initially staged a demonstration in the main bazaar of Battagram and later moved to the Khatm-i-Nabuwat Chowk, blocking a part of the Karakoram Highway.
The protesters were shouting slogans, rejecting the “thuggery” of Battagram Deputy Commissioner Tanveerur Rehman and the Water and Power Development Authority.
“DC ki ghunda gardi namanzoor, Wapda ki ghunda gardi namanzoor (we reject the thuggery of the DC and Wapda),” he quoted them as saying.
The protesters also called for the DC’s transfer — claiming that his incompetence was leading the district towards anarchy.
Addressing the gathering, Chappargram Village Council Chairman Shaukat Hayat decried that officials had disconnected electricity to the entire union council without keeping in view the “ground realities”.
“The electricity supply has been suspended to even those consumers who have been paying their bills regularly and have legal connections,” he said.
He denounced the Battagram DC for what he saw as an attempt to “impose his biased decisions on the poor while the influentials in the district remain untouched”.
The DC should be replaced by a “wiser person capable of running the affairs of the district smoothly”, Hayat demanded, warning that if the protesters’ demands were not fulfilled, they would uproot pylons of the Allai Khwar Hydropower Project transmission line.
