Residents protest power cuts as cold grips Pakistan’s mountains

HUNDREDS of people blocked a highway on Tuesday (7) in Pakistan’s mountainous northern region, protesting power outages lasting longer than 20 hours as temperatures plunged to minus 15°C.

Routine load-shedding is widespread across fuel-deprived Pakistan, but residents of the mountainous, snow-covered regions in Gilgit-Baltistan endure prolonged blackouts.

“We have been facing the worst kind of power cuts, we get only one or two hours of electricity during the whole day,” Baba Jan, a political activist who organised the protest, said.

Around 1,000 people joined the demonstration in the picturesque valley of Hunza since last Friday (3), blocking a section of the 1,300-km (808-mile) Karakoram Highway and preventing dozens of freight trucks from crossing into China.

People usually rely on wood to keep warm as both gas and fuel-operated generators are too expensive.

“People from all walks of life, including the tourists, are suffering in extremely cold weather due to the absence of electricity,” Zahoor Ali, another protest organiser, said.

The highway is part of the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), where China has invested billions, connecting the northern border to the southern coastal city of Gwadar.

“The Karakoram Highway at Ali Abad in Hunza is completely blocked for traffic... business between Pakistan and China is suspended for days owing to the blockade,” local trader Javaid Hussain said.

A sit-in protest by residents

“For the smooth running of business between Pakistan and China, the government should take steps to end the power crisis in the region.”

Pressure on the electricity grid increases during peak winter and summer seasons, leading to planned load-shedding as the government grapples with an energy supply crisis, exacerbated by political instability and economic stagnation.

Owing to its remoteness, GilgitBaltistan is not connected to the national grid and fails to generate enough power from dozens of hydro plants while thermal plants have proven costly.

Kamal Khan, a senior government official in the region, said by phone that negotiations were ongoing with the protesters, who have demanded that under-construction power projects be expedited and thermal generator plants activated.

“Their demands are genuine and we agreed to fulfil all of their demands except the running of thermal generators... because they are very expensive,” he said.

Public protests against rising electricity prices and load-shedding have increased significantly over the years in the country, affecting daily life.

Meanwhile, prices have soared to over double their 2021 rate as the government attempts to comply with demands from the International Monetary Fund to raise revenue. (AFP)