PESHAWAR, Aug 26: Furious lawmakers in provincial assembly have criticised the unscheduled long spells of power outages in their respective areas and demanded of the federal government to end the step-motherly treatment with NWFP, which generates more electricity than any other province.

Speaking on hours-long loadshedding in their districts here at the floor of the provincial assembly on Tuesday, they alleged that senior Wapda officials, sitting in Lahore and Islamabad, were responsible for the hardships of the general people. “We are told that it is power management, which causes a minor trouble for the people,” they added.

When all the lawmakers started, at a time, speaking on the issue, Speaker Karamatullah Khan Chagharmati, who was presiding over the session, advised them to air their views one by one. He said it had become a main problem for the consumers.

Sikandar Irfan of Awamin National party from Swabi drew the attention of the House towards the protest staged by residents of his district against the loadshedding. He protested the manhandling of his electorates by the district police. He said the local people were peacefully protesting against the loadshedding, when the police tear-gassed and baton charged them. He said Tarbela power house was located in his district but they constrained to live in darkness.

Sardar Ali, an independent MPA from Swabi, said that Wapda was not paying any heed to their hardships. He proposed to the House to evolve a joint strategy against Wapda’s non-cooperative stance. The poor villagers, he said, had endured the entire summer without the electricity but now they were not ready to tolerate all this.

Israrullah Khan Gandapur from Dera Ismail Khan said the national power control system was located in Islamabad, which got electricity supply stopped through its regional wing, Pesco, in order to transmit it to the industrial units in Punjab. He proposed to the chair to summon Pesco chief and ask him to explain about the ongoing load-shedding in the province. Atiqur Rehman, a Pakistan People’s Party lawmaker from Hangu, blamed Pesco for the unscheduled power outages in his district.

Saquibullah Khan Chamkani of ANP said that people were constrained to get their faulty transformer repaired on their own. He said that poor villagers used to pool money on their own to get the thing done. He said that Pesco didn’t cooperate with the people.

Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain also lashed out at the Wapda high-ups for what he called their unfair treatment with the Frontier people. “We, the people of this province are the owner of electricity being generated from the Tarbela Dam,” he added. Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour said they would take up the issue with the federal government.

The speaker, however, asked Pesco chief to come to his secretariat on Wednesday and explain the situation The House also offered fateha for the departed soul of famous Urdu poet Ahmed Faraz, who died on Monday.

Later, the House, through a unanimous resolution, condemned publishing of cartoons of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in the Indian daily Hindu and termed it “an unsavoury and blasphemous act” on the part of the newspaper, which had hurt the feelings of millions of Muslims across the world. It said the growing anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic trend in some of the western countries was not only dangerous for the world peace but a matter of faith for the Muslim across the globe.

“The Holy Prophet has been, is and will be an unparallel and sacred centre of our hopes and dreams. We cannot tolerate any uncalled for remarks against his person,” the resolution said. It asked the government to put a lifetime ban on the visit of owners and reporters of the newspaper to Pakistan.

Shah Hussain of MMA, Qalandar Loshi of the PML-Q, Pir Sabir Shah of PML-N,

Mian Iftikhar Hussain of ANP and Mohammad Shuja of PPP were joint movers of the resolution.

Earlier, Speaker Chagharmati formed a 15-member disaster management committee in his own leadership to meet the future disaster challenges.

Seven lawmakers -- Sher Shah, Taj Mohammad Khan, Taimur Khan, Sardar Shamoon, Mohammad Anwar, Malik Badshah Saleh and Pir Khalid Raza Zakori -- through a joint call attention notice, demanded of the government to allocate them their share of roads and water supply schemes. Law Minister Arshad Abduulah assured them that they would be given their due shares in the development schemes.

On his call attention notice, Israrullah Gandapur drew the attention of the chair towards the shifting of Regional Coordination Officer’s office from D. I. Khan to Bannu. He said D.I. Khan was the oldest division in the South and RCO office should be established in his district.

Three ordinances -- The Islamia College University Peshawar Ordinance, 2008, NWFP Government (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008, and NWFP Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Privileges) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008 -- were also laid before the House.

The House also adopted The Khyber Medical University (Amendment) Bill, 2008, with an amendment introduced by Abdul Akbar Khan of PPP. Health Minister Syed Zahir Ali Shah tabled the bill in the House.

Later, the speaker adjourned the House till Wednesday.