MINGORA: Senior lawyers in Swat have filed a writ petition in a local court against the Peshawar Electric Supply Company for observing unscheduled and prolonged power outages here in the district.

Wapda chairman and Pesco chief executive officer, Peshawar, and its officials in Swat have been made party in the case and the court has summoned both the parties to appear before it on July 25.

Leading the lawyers, their senior colleagues Barrister Asad Hamidur Rehman, Abdul Qayum and Asghar Khan filed the writ petition. They said that almost 100 per cent of the Swat residents paid their electricity bills, but they were subjected to prolonged outages.

`In 2014 the Supreme Court in its judgment had stated that suspension of electricity to those areas where people pay 100 per cent electricity bills was a crime under Article 9 of the Constitution and ordered Wapda not to cut power to those areas,` said the lawyers, adding that depriving citizens of their basic needs was against the Constitution and a crime.

They said that Pesco deliberately observed prolonged and unscheduled power loadshedding which was injustice with the people of Swat.

`Despite the fact that MNA Murad Saeed has presented the evidence of 100 per cent bill payment on the floor of National Assembly the federal government does not bother to address the public issue in Swat,` they said.

The lawyers said that going to courts against the injustices of Wapda was the last option to seek justice from the federal government and Wapda officials.

Meanwhile, people in Swat have been facing multiple issues after loadshedding exceeded 16 hours. A large number of people took to the streets in Kabal, Matta and Khwazakhela tehsils, demanding of the federal government and Wapda to end the prolonged power outages.