Protest in Pakistan’s Gwadar against frequent power outages

Frustrated with scorching heat, hundreds of people, including political workers, members of civil society and women on Wednesday protested in Pakistan’s port city of Gwadar against load-shedding, demanding the transfer of the electricity supply company’s executive engineer.

They marched on the main roads of Gwadar town and chanted slogans against the officials of Quetta Electricity Supply Company (QESCO).

The protestors staged a sit-in at the airport road where leaders of various political parties including Afzal Jan (PPP), Majid Sohrabi (BNP-Mengal), Saeed Faiz Baloch d Baloch (BNP-Awami) Engineer Hameed Baloch of National party and others spoke.

The protesters said that QESCO has failed to supply electricity to people of the port city and other areas of Gwadar district in the scorching hot weather, demanding a transfer of the executive engineer of QESCO.

“The people of Gwadar were protesting for the last three days but no step was taken by the concerned authorities so far to resolve the issue of load shedding,” the protestors said.

They announced that all parties’ leaders will not hold talks with local administration and QESCO officials in the presence of the QESCO executive engineer.

Currently, Gwadar receives its electricity from Iran because this part of Balochistan is not connected with the national electric grid. According to Quetta Electricity Supply Company (QESCO), Iran is supposed to supply 100MW of electricity but currently, it is providing 50MW due to its own supply-side constraints. A 300 MW power plant has been approved for Gwadar but it is far from completion.