CHITRAL: PTI MNA Abdul Latif blasted the federal government for ignoring the local people in development projects, which led to the area becoming the target of intense protests these days. Speaking on the phone with journalists at the Chitral Press Club on Saturday, he expressed regret that residents of various parts of the Lower and Upper Chitral districts had come out to voice their disapproval of the federal government’s prolonged power outage and halt to ongoing road projects. He claimed that while residents of Reshun were protesting Pesco’s exorbitant electricity costs, thousands of people from Torkhow were out to protest the lack of necessary funding for the 35-km long Booni-Buzund Road. According to him, the residents of Lower Chitral were protesting the closure of the Chitral-Shandur road, the abandonment of the Kalash valleys road project, and the heavy loadshedding in Drosh town. He alleged that the Shehbaz Sharif administration was committed to punishing the local residents for supporting the PTI. He claimed that the PDM administration and the current leadership in Islamabad had either halted or slowed down the development projects that the PTI government had initiated in the region. According to Abdul Latif, the nearby Golen Gol hydropower plant was producing 108 megawatts of electricity, and there was no reason for the extended loadshedding of 10 hours of power each day. He cautioned that failure to prevent reprisal would make it difficult for the central PML-N government to put an end to the protests in the area.