MANSEHRA: The Islahi Committee of Lower Kohistan on Sunday announced the suspension of their ongoing blockade of the Karakoram Highway until June 12 after the district administration and police department guaranteed them that the energising of the upgraded 132kV grid station would be completed before it.
“We are going to suspend our agitation as the district administration and police have guaranteed us that the energising work will be completed by June 12,” Maulana Ahmad Ali, a cleric, told the protesters assembled on the Karakoram Highway on Sunday.
The protesters, as usual, blocked the KKH at around 2 pm on the fifth consecutive day, but before ending the protest, they announced the suspension of their agitation in the presence of Deputy Commissioner Zuhaib Hayat and District Police Officer Zafar Ahmad Khan in Pattan, the district headquarters of Lower Kohistan.
Earlier in the day, members of the Islahi Committee, including clerics, and the deputy commissioner of Lower Kohistan, reviewed the construction and machine installation work underway to energise the 132kV grid station in the Pattan area of the district.
“We want the early completion and functioning of this project so that the people of Lower Kohistan and Kolai-Palas districts can be supplied with electricity from the Dubair Khawar Dam,” Zuhaib Hayat, the Deputy Commissioner of Lower Kohistan, told engineers and labourers working on the installation of machinery and equipment at the upgraded 132kV grid station in Pattan.
The deputy commissioner, who took members of the Islahi Committee to the grid station to verify the installation of machinery and equipment, said that Wapda was sincerely working to address the longstanding issue.
“I expect that Wapda will swiftly complete the energising of the grid station and ensure electricity supply to people of Lower Kohistan and Kolai- Palas until June 12,” Mr Hayat said.
Passengers travelling within the Lower Kohistan district and between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan remained stranded amid the scorching heat on the KKH before the committee announced the lifting of the blockade.
