PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur warned that prolonged load shedding is making life unbearable for residents and could lead to an “Uncontrollable public backlash.”

Chairing meeting, it focused on load shedding, which was also attended by chief secretary, additional home chief secretary, principal secretary to CM, secretary of energy and senior police officials. Meeting reviewed situation of power outages in province, especially during Eid ul Adha, following discussions with federal authorities. Officials briefed CM on latest load-shedding situation and other related issues. They reported that with provincial government’s support, nearly one billion rupees were recovered from high-loss areas in last month. PESCO installations and staff have been provided full security by police, with dedicated teams deployed in each district. For first time, women have also participated in protests against power outages. Briefing warned that if situation does not improve, there could be serious law and order problems in province. CM Gandapur stated that government is fully cooperating to resolve power-related issues as per their commitments. He expressed disappointment that federal government has not fulfilled its promises. Despite significant recoveries from high-loss areas, unscheduled load shedding continues.

“Protests against load-shedding are not driven by any political party or provincial government but are genuine public issue. People are struggling to get water for drinking at home and for ablution in masajid,” he added. He urged federal government to take matter seriously.