The homesick Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers have resorted to cooking their own food at the Constitution Avenue by arranging gas cylinders, stoves, cooking pots and other utensils.
This new turn of events, however, has worried people at the same venue as the proximity of cylinders to tents could be dangerous in case of a fire.
“It is dangerous to keep these gas cylinders next to the tents,” said PAT worker Mohammad Zahid.
Talking to The Express Tribune, he said that most of the tents being used in the area are made of flammable material.
Zahid further said many children play around the stoves and cylinders, which is also dangerous.
“We do not have any firefighting equipment, so we all are at a risk in case of a fire,” he said.
The families however, pled that they have been away from home for over a month and miss home-cooked meals.
Food waste is not removed every day and is attracting flies (left); while flammable cylinders next to tents could have disastrous consequences (right) . PHOTOS: MUHAMMAD JAVAID/EXPRESS
They added that they have been provided three free meals-a-day by PAT but they still crave home-cooked food.
“My children were craving aloo bhujia, so I cooked it for them,” said Shahida, a PAT worker from Sargodha.
She added that the family was buying additional food from local vendors for the past month, but it was causing stomach problems for them.
Just outside her tent, Nasreen Bibi from Chakwal was busy making daal for her family of seven.
“For the past few days we have been getting two meals-a-day, so we are sharing our party chief’s burden by cooking our own food,” she said.
She further said that since the start of the sit-in, they have eaten rice every day and now want to add more variety to the menu.
Nadir, another PAT worker, opined, “When we can afford to cook our own food, it is better to do so and let those who cannot afford it have the free food being distributed twice or thrice-a-day”.
He added that his female relatives want to go back to their routine daily schedules and preparing breakfast and lunch for their families is part of it.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 18th, 2014.
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