JI leader wants Golen Gol electricity for Upper Dir

UPPER DIR: The Jamaat-i-Islami’s parliamentary leader in National Assembly Sahibzada Tariqullah gave a week’s deadline to the federal government to start work for supplying power from Golan Gol powerhouse in Chitral to Upper Dir.

Mr Tariqullah along with party’s local leadership was speaking at a press conference here to denounce unannounced and prolonged power outages in Upper Dir.

District nazim Sahibzada Fassehullah, tehsil nazims of Dir and Brawal, Mir Makhzanudin and Jihan Alam, were also present.

Mr Tariqullah said the federal government should provide electricity to Dir from the existing main transmission line which was providing electricity to Chitral. He said the Golan Gol powerhouse was set to generate 108MW electricity, while the total need of Chitral district was only 20MW.

He said total need of electricity for Dir city was from six to eight megawatts, which could easily be provided from Drosh grid station in Chitral through the existing transmission line.

He said the federal government had assured him time and again about providing electricity to Dir from Golan Gol, however it had yet to take practical steps in that regard.

The MNA said it was the right of people of Upper Dir to get electricity from the Golan Gol powerhouse. The JI leaders threatened to take to the streets if their demand was not met within a week.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2018