MOVEMENT is the essence of life, no matter whether you are going up or down. But you have to move to perform various functions you are destined to perform. Same is the case when you go out to dispose of your work.

Gone are the days when caravans were meant for long journeys and people seldom thought of going outside their towns. Their basic requirements were fulfilled within its boundaries.

Time has tremendously changed; now we spend the major part of the day outside our homes in order to earn a livelihood.

To move to and from the workplace, different modes of transport are used. Luckily or unluckily, all wheeled transport requires roads to move on.

With a significant increase in the number of vehicles vis a vis population, one may see hectic traffic activity on all main roads of Islamabad and other major cities. Especially, during school and office hours roads are jam-packed with vehicles.

Using one’s own car has become a status symbol and we don’t settle with anything less. Mounting a bus hurts most people’s ego, so they don’t even think about it. When everybody is driving his vehicle and that too in a hurry, things go out of control. People honking horns incessantly, making vulgar innuendos and cursing one another are too often witnessed scenes during rush hours each and every day.

The story does not end here. We are irked every morning and evening by “picketing pickets” installed on almost all highways of Islamabad. Pickets erected on the Kashmir Highway, near the fire brigade station, and Peshawar Moar badly affect traffic flow, as it often remains jammed at these two points. Long lanes perturb the people in hard-weather conditions. Only a few policemen peep through vehicles’ windscreens and allow their drivers to go through. There is so little space that the barricades kept there are struck by novice drivers a number of times, causing substantial damage to the vehicles.

Another bottle-neck erected on Ninth Avenue, near Stadium Road, badly affects the smooth flow of traffic. Similarly, a picket at the Qaid-e-Azam Avenue, in front of F-9 Park, badly hampers commuters’ movement.

The situation worsens when some ambulance appears on any of these spots, making it extremely difficult for its driver to proceed onwards. The gravity of the threat to the life of the patient inside the ambulance is beyond imagination.

Those who cross these traffic pickets daily would agree that police constables present there only try to make a few bucks from the people who have tainted windscreens.

These bottle-necks only irk the people and waste much of their precious time and energy.

The authorities concerned are requested to take into account all the difficulties being faced by the general public, especially the pickets which are doing no good to the public but rather the opposite.

It is hoped that some alternative arrangements would be made to tighten the security of the capital and the people would be provided relief from this mental torture inflicted upon them in the name of “security”.

IFTIKHAR MIRZA
Islamabad