VVIP movement: Road, metro bus closures irk commuters in twin cities

As the crown prince of United Arab Emirates arrive for a state visit

RAWALPINDI: As the crown prince of United Arab Emirates arrived for a state visit, the strict security arrangements undertaken by the government left citizens frustrated with major thoroughfares and even the metro bus service suspended for a period on Sunday afternoon.

Authorities in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi ensured strict security measures as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Crown Prince Sheikh Muhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan landed at the Nur Khan Airbase.

Over 2,000 police officers, including members from the VVIP unit of Rawalpindi police and special branch, performed security duties from the airport, along with the Islamabad Expressway and all the way up to the Prime Minister House and back.



In Rawalpindi, a senior police officer said that some 450 police officers were deployed along the route. The entire operation was overseen by Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Abbas Ahsan along with a senior superintendent of police (SSP), two SPs, four DSPs, 11 inspectors, 47 Sub-inspectors, eight head constables, 253 constables. A further six sub-inspectors of the elite force, five head constables and 54 constables and four lady constables were also deployed.  A lady officer along with six lady constables of the district police was also deployed.

All traffic movement along the route was suspended during the arrival and departure of the crown prince, causing a traffic logjam on the IJ Principal Road. This irked residents who stated that some of them were stuck in traffic congestion for as long as two hours.

Choudhary Waqar took to micro-blogging site Twitter to say that traffic was awful at the entrance of the federal capital. “No supervision by police at all,” he wrote as he urged the Islamabad deputy commissioner to take note.

“Almost all main roads in Islamabad are closed ahead of the arrival of the UAE crown prince. No prior information of road closure was given to the people who faced lots of problems,” complained Tahir Khan, who suggested, “Security for guests is important, but people should have been advised about the road closure.”

Another commuter complained that two major roads in the capital were shut for two hours during which ambulances and civilians with infants and kids had to suffer.

“Roads in Rawalpindi and Islamabad are crowded every single day of the week irrespective of VIP movement,” noted Jamshed Shahid, adding, “Population explosion, lack of bypasses to divert intra-city traffic, poor traffic management, lack of road sense among people and blatant violation of traffic rules was to blame.”



To make matters worse, the metro bus service operation was also restricted to the Saddar and Shamsabad stations causing great difficulties to commuters of the twin cities.

As per officials of the metro bus authority, bus operations remained restricted on orders from the government. The officials added that the service was fully restored after clearance at around 6:30 pm in the evening.

To make matters worse, those heading to the hill station of Murree to enjoy their weekly holiday were snarled in a traffic jam on the winding roads as the Rawalpindi Traffic Police (RTP) noted that over 90,000 vehicles had entered the snow-covered hill resort during the weekend.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2019.