KHYBER: With most parts of the country reeling under vociferous protest demonstrations against exorbitant electricity bills, the residents of Khyber are instead facing long hours of power suspension as they are opposed to installation of power meters at their homes.

A sizeable population of the erstwhile Fata is not in favour of electricity meters’ installation and is thus subjected to nearly 22 hours of power suspension by the Tribal Areas Electricity Supply Company (Tesco) on daily basis.

Tesco has made it clear to the residents of tribal districts that they will get only four hours of electricity on daily basis till they agree to install meters at their homes and get ‘full electricity’.

Tesco has, however, succeeded in installing meters in almost all the commercial centres in the tribal districts where consumers regularly pay their monthly bills, which are exempted from any additional taxes.

Tesco tells tribal people to install meters to get uninterrupted power supply

“We are just content with our monthly bills as these are devoid of any extra taxes and are very much in accordance with our consumption of electricity,” Jafar Khan, president of Landi Kotal Tajir Union, told Dawn.

He said he had not yet received any complaint from any of the shopkeepers about excessive billing in recent days. “We have over 600 electricity meters installed only in Landi Kotal bazaar while the shopkeepers are regularly paying their bills,” he added.

Fazlur Rehman, a social activist, said that no political party or organisation extended any help to them when tribesmen had been protesting against excessive outage for the last three decades.

“Why should we join protests against inflated bills when we were treated as pariahs while bearing long hours of power suspension,” he said in a sarcastic mood.

He, however, insisted that a concerted and collective struggle was needed to tackle the issue of inflated bills country-wide as residents of tribal districts too would soon become ‘victims’ of electricity billing.

Malak Razzaq, a Zakhakhel elder, strongly opposed installation of electricity meters in houses of tribesmen and said it would confront them with paying of bills, which majority of the tribesmen were unable to afford.

He said that it was better to invest in solar panels instead of agreeing to installation of power meters. “Solar panels are a onetime investment while Tesco would charge us on a monthly basis and that too for faulty supply of electricity,” he added.

Banaras Khan, a political activist, suggested that the tribesmen too should join the protest as their areas were now part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and couldn’t stay aloof from such ‘harsh policies’ of any government department.

He demanded of the Tesco to not only install meters for all domestic consumers but also ensure uninterrupted power supply to avoid any agitation.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2023