If you have some business at a government department at the civil secretariat, make sure that you come with a cool mind and park your car somewhere outside the premises since the guards deployed after every ten steps on the Police Line Road will check you and search you thoroughly, and if you have your car along then be a hundred per cent sure that you will be sent back.
Private vehicles have no place in the secretariat, similarly, a common man has to get someone’s reference to get in and surrender his identity card at the gates.
According to secretariat employees, security measures were not as heightened until 2010 when the police department closed the road for the general public in their steps taken to secure themselves.
“The police consider the secretariat as their personal property,” said Tariq Khan, a government employee at the civil secretariat. “If you have a car bearing a green number plate you can pass through the check-posts without being stopped by the police. However, if you have a private car or motorcycle then you would be harassed by the police and then by the security guards of the secretariat,” he said, adding after all the checking and investigation the security officials will send people back.
Three of the secretariat gates, including one on the police line road, the MPA hostel gate and one Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Road at the central police office side are closed for vehicles. Khan said that there were hotels on the police line road, the road was open general public, and even for the public transport but now only government officials are permitted in the area. While the secretariat employees have to bring their food from Khyber Bazaar, park their vehicles on road under the Mufti Mehmood Flyover, and out on the main G.T Road.
Secretary Administration Hassan Mehmood Yousufzai, when asked about the problems due to security and no parking facility in the premises of secretariat, said, “a parking plaza adjacent to Sharqi police station with the capacity to accommodate several hundred vehicles was due to be completed by June 30, 2015, but the project has been extended by three more months.” The secretary added transport-cum-security stickers would be issued to vehicles of secretariat employees and their vehicles’ database would be prepared for checking at the entrance. Similarly, for the outsiders’ vehicles entry to the parking plaza would be permitted. He informed that another parking plaza comprising of a two-storey building is under construction along with the industries department at the secretariat, which would further compensate in the parking problem.
Regarding the security check-posts he said, “The series of checking points are due to security situation and the sensitivity of the place. If one check post gets attacked the other could respond.” Yousufazi said the area is red-zone where the police have their own security arrangements, the secretariat has its internal security and then the chief minister house, governor hours and Peshawar court with which the secretariat is attached have their own security.
“The secretariat is not a public place, there would be trespassing if the public is allowed to use the road,” he said.