PESHAWAR, Nov 1: Coalition partners in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government have expressed grave concern over the prolonged power loadshedding and low gas pressure in various parts of the province, including Peshawar, and asked Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to take up the matter with the federal government on emergency basis.

The issue was raised in a consultative meeting of ruling coalition members that was largely attended by the provincial ministers and MPAs of coalition parties here on Friday.

The participants lodged a unanimous complaint about the unscheduled and prolonged loadshedding of electricity and gas in the province, especially in Peshawar and other big cities, and asked the chief minister to take steps to end the outages.

They alleged that the authorities of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) was deliberately suspending power supply in the province at the behest of the federal gov-ernment with the motive to make the provincial government unpopular among masses.

The chief minister told the meeting that the matter had already been taken up with the federal government and if the issue was not resolved properly then the provincial government would determine its future course of action.

Mr Khattak said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led coalition government was the most powerful government in the history of the province. It is neither weak nor immature and there are no differences among the coalition parties of the government, he said.

He said that all the four coalition parties were on the same page with regard to the reforms agenda and policies of the provincial government.

Mr Khattak urged the ministers to resolve people`s problems relating to their respective departments. He called upon the coalition MPAs to attend the assembly sessions on regular basis so that the issues faced by public could be effectively raised in the houseand addressed accordingly.

Meanwhile, people of various localities in Peshawar, including Garhi Qamardin, Gulshan Rahman Colony and villages on both sides of Kohat Road, have urged the Peshawar High Court chief justice and chief minister to take notice of the 18-hour daily electricity loadshedding in their localities. They said that the Pesco bosses were trying to provoke the residents against the government.

Talking to media persons here on Friday, some elders, including Mohammad Younus, Nasir Khan of Gulshan Rehman Colony, former nazim Arshad Khan, Nazir Mohammad and Fazal Azam, said that 98 per cent electricity metres were installed outside on poles and 100 per cent consumers had been paying bills regularly, but despite that they were subjected to prolonged power outages.

`The Pesco officials have made it clear to the elders and elected people from the area that they will have to face the power cuts in any case,` said Arshad Khan.