Life in the federal capital halted during the four-day-long sit-in by pro-Qadri supporters in front of the Parliament House.
Residents of Islamabad faced inconvenience during the sit-in, as mobile phone and metro bus services were suspended since Sunday night as Mumtaz Qadri’s supporters camped outside the Parliament House.
The protesters belonging to the Sunni Tehreek damaged public property worth millions of rupees, as they torched containers, metro bus stations, motorbikes and other vehicles.
Several residents of the city complained that owing to the shutdown of cellular services, they faced problems in coordinating with their family and friends.
Shahid Abbasi, whose brother was admitted in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), told Pakistan Today that he had to arrange blood for his brother but due to the suspension of mobile service, he was unable to contact his friends and relatives for blood donation on time.
Lashing out on the government, he said, “The authority had no strategy to deal with such a critical situation. Merely suspending the mobile service without taking into account the problems faced by the people”.
“A patient came to the hospital with labour pains. We were unable to contact the doctor on time and her normal delivery turned into a caesarean,” said Javed, an administrator at a hospital. He said the patient could not be even shifted to some other hospital because of the traffic jams.
Anis Ahmed, a daily wager, said that his family back in Faisalabad passed through great ordeal, as they tried to contact him for the last four days but they couldn’t because of the suspension of cellular service.
This is not the first time that mobile phone services have been suspended in the capital. The services are suspended often whenever there is a strike, protest or any important event.
Residents of Gulshan-e-Jinnah, a residential complex for government officers located close to the Red Zone, were cut off from the outside world since Sunday night.
Akram, a resident of the government quarters near D-Chowk, told Pakistan Today that sounds of speeches and sirens of police vehicles did not let them sleep all night.
In addition, unparallel damaged has been done due to the sit-in, as business activities remained suspended, traders could not afford to open their shops fearing possible reaction from the baton-wielding Qadri supporters.
Besides, people of the twin cities faced great problems due to suspension of metro bus service, as they could not reach their offices in time. Thin attendance was witnessed in government offices located in Red Zone due to the sit-in.
The key government buildings and offices including Supreme Court, Federal Secretariat, Parliament House, President House, Prime Minister Office, Federal Ombudsman, PTV, Radio Pakistan and Federal Lodges are located in Red Zone.
The government employees, especially those who use public transport faced numerous problems in communing to their offices due to which attendance in the offices located in the Red zone was quite low, as most of roads leading to secretariat, Prime Minister House, Supreme Court and others were blocked by the protesters.
Talking to Pakistan Today, an official said that the attendance of the employee was less than 70 percent due to sit-in, as most of the employees could not enter Red Zone owing the tight security apparatus put in place in the red zone. He said that some senior officers also avoided attending their offices due to presence of a large number of protesters.