As participants of the long march continue to camp out in the open along the Jinnah Avenue since Monday, the beauty of the place has been marred with heaps of garbage which has also left the area with a bad odour. The volunteers who had been assigned various duties during the long mach seem least bothered about keeping the area clean.
The sit-in at Jinnah Avenue has entered its fourth day with piles of garbage seen everywhere creating a foul smell which has made it very difficult for both visitors and residents to breath.
Aneela, a visitor said, “There is an acute shortage of toilets for participants that have given way to the foul smell and sights of human excretion in the small alley around Blue Area have become a common sight,”.
Tall claims of volunteers of the TMQ to maintain discipline and ensure cleanliness turned out to be untrue, she said.
Saleem, who runs a shop in Blue Area, said stray dogs and cats were wandering to feed on leftover food items.
The roads are littered with shopping bags, cigarette butts, broken crockery and empty bottles creating nuisance for everyone.
“While we all know that cleanliness is half of our faith, not many implement the principle in their lives,” said Farooq Ali who lives nearby in F-6 sector.
He said followers of Allama Tahirul Qadri should have taken it upon themselves to make this virtue an important part of their gathering but things on the Jinnah Avenue depict a picture contrary to the teachings of Islam.
The crowd occupied empty spaces in adjacent Blue Area to get shelter at night, when temperatures get very low.
The traders on the other hand, have not opened for business owing to security concerns.
Naeem Iqbal, who runs a travel agency in the area, expressed dismay at not being able to open his agency on the fourth consecutive day.
“My business is badly disturbed due to the long march as hundreds of people are literally sitting in front of my office and traffic at Jinnah Avenue has virtually been suspended,” he said.
Islamabad stands out from rest of the cities for its beauty and cleanliness because its civic body has been spending a lot of money for maintenance of the city. Residents of the capital have appealed to the participants to restore the identity of the scenic city.
