QUETTA: Members from both opposition and treasury benches staged a walkout from the Balochistan Assembly on Saturday in protest against Wapda over outages, overbilling and low voltage in various districts of the province.

The protesting lawmakers condemned the federal government and Wapda for refusal to implement the resolutions adopted by the Balochistan Assembly on different issues, including long hours of loadshedding in the province.

The walkout during the session presided over by Speaker Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani took place when a debate was under way on a joint resolution moved by Rahat Jamali of the PML-N.

While speaking on the resolution before walking out of the house, members said that loadshedding and overbilling were being faced by people throughout the province and suggested that the resolution be presented on behalf of the entire house.

They said that a powerful parliamentary committee should be constituted to take up these issues with the federal government.

Ms Jamali, whose party is in power at the Centre, lamented that 18 to 20 hours of loadshedding had been causing miseries to people living in areas where temperature in summer frequently shot up to 50 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, she said, the Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco)was sending inflated bills without meter reading. She said that in case of a fault in transformers, Qesco staff took at least one month to repair it.

Nasarullah Zerey of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) said that despite passing various resolutions over these issues, Islamabad and Wapda were not paying any heed to these problems.

Under these circumstances, he said, there was no point in sitting in the house.

`I am walking out of the house against the discriminatory attitude of Wapda and the federal government,` Mr Zerey said and went out of the hall. Many members of opposition and treasury benches supported him and walked out of the house.

However, Shahida Rauf of the JUI-F expressed her astonishment over the walkout, saying she could not understand the protest by the treasury members because it was the right of the opposition to resort to such protest.

Provincial Minister for Revenue and TransportSheikhJaffarKhanMandokhel, while responding to the objection raised by Ms Rauf, said that treasury members had not staged the walkout against the government. `The walkout was against the attitude of Wapda and Qesco which are responsible for the power crisis in the province,` he said.

The house then passed the resolution with an amendment suggested by the members.

Speaker Durrani said that she would summon the officials concerned of Qesco.