Pakistan lawyers to observe strike against inflated electricity bills tomorrow

Islamabad [Pakistan]: The Pakistani lawyers have announced to observe one one-day strike on Monday against the inflated electricity bills and escalating prices of essential commodities, including petroleum products, Dawn News reported on Sunday.

In decision was taken in the general body meeting of the Peshawar Bar Association with its president, Ishfaq Ahmad Khalil, in the chair.

According to Pakistan-based newspaper, the participants included members of the association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council (KPBC) and Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHBCA).

The news daily reported that the PHBCA, with the approval of the KPBC, announced the boycott of all courts in the province on Sept 4 and took out a rally from district courts to the Rehman Baba Chowk near the provincial assembly’s building via the Khyber Road.

The meeting was addressed by the PBA office-bearers and members, who warned the government that if inflated electricity and natural gas bills weren’t withdrawn and petroleum prices weren’t reduced, lawyers would begin a protest movement across the province that would later be extended to other parts of the country.

The speakers said lawyers won’t tolerate “oppressive” policies of the government and would begin a protest movement on the pattern of their 2007 agitation against a military ruler for the supremacy of the Constitution and upholding the rule of law.

Pakistan also observed a shutterdown strike on Saturday against the inflated electricity bills and inflation.

More people are joining the nationwide protest every day against excessive electricity prices. Locals have been taking to the streets and even burning currency notes in protest, ARY News reported.

Protests against the exorbitant electricity prices have spread across the entire nation — from Karachi to Khyber — and some protests are now turning violent.

People in Karachi demonstrated against the excessive bills that K-Electric, the city’s only electricity provider, gave out. They expressed displeasure that their bills exceeded their salaries, according to ARY News, a news channel that operates in Pakistan.

A large number of people demonstrated in Peshawar, with locals declaring that they will not remain silent in the face of this “injustice.”Additionally, traders from Lahore Square and Ganj Bazaar set fire to power bills to vent their fury.

At Committee Chowk in Rawalpindi, protesters gathered and burned electricity bills, raising slogans against the government.

Protesters besieged the Gujranwala Electric Power Company office in an effort to draw attention to the inflated tariff issue.

Other cities such as Narowal, Attock, Sargodha, and Haripur, too, saw demonstrations against rising electricity costs.