New Manora Beach Front visitors face long waiting lines

Being an area under Pakistan Navy control, people need to provide details at checkpoint

KARACHI:

A large number of citizens turned up at the Manora Beach Front on Sunday a day after inauguration by the Sindh chief minister. However, the Pakistan Navy security personnel and the unusual rush of the visitors heading to the otherwise quaint beach were in for a surprise. Many visitors rushing to the newly developed beach front were unaware of the security linked to the nearby naval installations causing undue encumbrance to the security staff.

Families riding rickshaws, motorbikes and private vehicles arrived at Manora from the lone road link via Hawke's Bay to Kaka Pir and onwards to the Manora beach had to wait for security reasons. Entry of CNIC of the vehicle's driver and names of people inside it remains mandatory at the Navy Check Post. For this, the driver has to park the vehicle on one side and get the national identity card number, vehicle number and names of people accompanying him registered.

The security staff has to write it manually. Due to the arrival of a large number of citizens on the weekly holiday, queues of vehicles were formed and citizens had to wait for entry. Meanwhile, the entry of media in the public entertainment area has been completely blocked. Security officials said that media was barred from entering as per the standard operating procedures of the naval installations. Cameras in particular are allowed only on permission of higher authorities.

Meanwhile, the citizens waiting at the security point to go to the beach resort of Manohra said that they reached the beach from the other side of the city but were having to wait for the entry with the ID card and most of the entertainment time was spent in fulfilling the formalities. Kids, in particular, were struggling to get there as soon as possible after watching the unique beach resort on TV but no one was allowed to enter without completing formalities by the security personnel.

On the other hand, those returning from the beach resort said that an entrance fee of Rs50 per person is being charged for entering into the resort which is very high. A family of six will end up paying Rs300, they fumed. The Sindh government has built an entertainment venue with public money, why should the people pay for entering a public space, they said.