The extensive security measures adopted on Thursday, when Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani appeared before the Supreme Court in the contempt of court case regarding the non-implementation of the NRO judgment, caused all major roads of Islamabad leading to the SC to be blocked.
The office-goers, working in a number of public and private sector offices situated at the Constitution Avenue, including the Foreign Office, Radio Pakistan, Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Pakistan Television (PTV), Prime Minister Secretariat, President House (Awan-e-Sadar), Pak Secretariat, National Library of Pakistan (NLP) and Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), suffered greatly due to the extensive security measures that caused a massive traffic snarl.
With the freezing cold and rain at the time of court proceedings, the government employees reached their workplaces quite late, as the security personnel consumed a considerable time in checking their vehicles. They complained that the establishment of pickets everywhere had brought their routine life to a virtual standstill.
The commuters said that the government could come up with other solutions to uproot terrorism and ensure peace, rather than keeping the city abuzz with security officials. “The prime minister reached the SC at 9:30 am and came out of the building at 11:30 am but still I managed to reach my office at the time of lunch break, while majority of the employees reached after me,” commented a Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) employee.
Driving his white Prado, the prime minister reached the Supreme Court at 9:30am to appear before a bench of the apex court in a contempt notice issued to him. He was accompanied by a number of the federal cabinet members, while many of them had arrived before the arrival of Prime Minister Gilani. Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leader Aitzaz Ahsan also accompanied the prime minister as his counsel.
Thousands of personnel of police, Frontier Constabulary and Paramilitary forces were stationed on various roads of Islamabad to guard the city. They barricaded all the important roads, including the Constitution Avenue, Margalla Road, Zero Point Road and Radio Pakistan Chowk. “About 10,000 personnel have been deployed in the city to protect public life and property,” a security official told Pakistan Today.
The snarl-ups were seen from dawn till mid day on the Club Road, Islamabad Highway, Khayaban-e-Suharwardy, Attaturk Avenue and the Kashmir Highway. The conversion of normal routes of public transport vehicles into zigzag ones also irked the commuters. The public transport vehicles on routes 1C and 24 remained off from the said routes, which were heavily manned by security officials.
The commuters in private vehicles also suffered greatly due to the thorough check of vehicles in various localities. Even ambulances were seen stuck in the traffic. Kashif Pervaiz, a businessman, said that it had taken him almost two hours to reach the Super Market from Rawalpindi as the security officials had searched his car on several points. Farrah Hussain, a private TV news channel employee whose office is situated at the Main Margalla Road, accused the police of blocking all roads under the pretext of general public’s safety, while only the VIPs were being protected.
Yousaf Raza Gilani is the third prime minister in the political history of Pakistan to have appeared before the Supreme Court as former prime ministers Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif had also appeared before the apex court in such notices.
