ISLAMABAD: The twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi house over five million people, and about 500,000 of them commute daily through the 16 entry-exit points which connect the two cities.

A large majority of Rawalpindi’s residents travel daily to Islamabad for various reasons — to attend educational institutions, or for work or other business concerns — and Islamabad Highway is the route most of them opt for as the wide lanes make for hassle-free travel.

When there isn’t much happening in the city, the commute barely takes any time. The road, now being turned into a signal-free corridor, is accessible even from villages on the far eastern outskirts of the capital where the thoroughfare connects to GT Road near Rawat. Those travelling to Benazir Bhutto Shaheed International Airport can take a left from Karal Chowk Interchange. Commuters can travel towards Faizabad Interchange from where the traffic fans out to Murree Road on the left, and centre-left onto IJP Road towards 9th Avenue, Pirwadhai and onward to Peshawar Road. You could keep going straight towards Faisal Mosque Chowk on Khayaban-i-Iqbal at the northern end.

The other main entrance to Islamabad from the western side is the Kashmir Highway from M-1 and M-2, GT Road and the Golra roundabout. The remaining 14 entrances could be closed for whatever reason and it would still be business as usual because the Islamabad Expressway — commonly referred to as Islamabad Highway — in the south and the Kashmir Highway — connecting GT Road near Tarnol — are capacious enough to accommodate the extra vehicles without much trouble.

But when these two roads are closed, pandemonium ensues. And as of late, they are closed often, usually without a valid reason. It is clear that those who might want to bring life to a standstill in these two cities have found a way to go for the jugular.

Every now and then, a political party or religious group sends their workers to Islamabad with some agenda. They stage sit-ins and close the gateway to the federal capital hoping to generate enough pressure to force the government to accept their demands.

And the administration looks on, while the protesters occupy important highways and streets and disrupt public movement.

With an interval of a few days, two religious groups recently arrived in Islamabad and closed its main roads for traffic for several days while raising demands that were unrelated to anyone’s personal, legal, political or religious concerns.

It’s strange that a group of around 5,000 people were allowed to hold 4.5 million people hostage, while educational institutions were shut down, attendance in offices thinned and business activity suffered. The protesters had managed to halt public life despite being in such small numbers simply because the administration had failed to act promptly.

While protesters and the administration dance a two-step around what’s permissible and what’s not, and test each other’s nerves hoping that the other will break first, it’s the residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi who suffer because of the officials’ incompetence.

Many roads and streets leading to hospitals, schools, offices, courts and markets are found blocked by protesters or the police. Traffic on the alternative routes moves at a snail’s pace or is choked because these routes cannot handle the influx of vehicles pouring in from highways.

The past week has been no less than a nightmare for residents of the twin cities.

The administration, at a loss to manage the two congregations of the Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain and a protest rally by members of the Tehreek-i-Labaik Yah Rasool Allah Pakistan, opted for the easiest solution. They sealed roads by placing shipping containers on them to prevent protesters from entering Islamabad city and gather in the Red Zone.

As a result, locals found themselves stuck in several places and trips that should have taken a few minutes stretched on for hours. Most of the diversions were uncomfortable, with potholes and ongoing construction obstructing most of the way. Movement of heavy traffic from Khyber Pakhtukhwa to Punjab further complicated the situation.

At least one child was reported dead because the protesters had denied an ambulance passage to hospital. Yet the authorities have consistently refused to take action, despite the fact that it is a crime to forcibly close a road. Even the Supreme Court has given clear directions in this regard.

“The government has to be compromising because such protests are sensitive,” said Malik Matloob Ahmed, senior superintendent of the traffic police. “In this situation, the job of the traffic police becomes difficult. We manage the entry of over 450,000 vehicles in Islamabad daily but the closure of main roads creates problems for us and the public,” he said.

“We are compelled to shut certain arteries and divert traffic on other available routes to keep it moving at least.”

He claims that the only solution to this problem is to designate space for protests and processions, and adds that protesters should be aware of their responsibility to the locals of the area and not harm routine public life.

But this solution is not one that protesters would accept easily. They know that if they want to get their way, they would have to pressure the government and cause a general unrest.

The government, on the other hand, diverts the pressure on to the public and, instead of engaging with protesters in some meaningful way, makes it convenient for them to carry on disrupting routine life.

The strategy, the government appears to have devised lately, is to tire the protesters out. Ministers continue to work from their Ministers’ Colony or offices, bureaucrats, police officials, judges and all other privileged classes pass through anywhere using hooters on their official cars. It is only the public that appears to be impacted by this.

Mehtab Haider, a local journalist, recently expressed this paradoxical situation in a Facebook post: “Free movement and free speech under siege in Islamabad. Is there any writ of law or Constitution?”

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2017