Constitution Avenue: Work at government office comes to a standstill

Employees brace barricades, containers to reach destinations.

ISLAMABAD:

The sit-ins on Constitution Avenue may not be affecting government’ stance but it has taken toll on the offices that fall in the area and surrounding.

It has been more than two weeks since the sit-ins started in the capital --- first in Aabpara and on Kashmir Highway, and then another week in the Red Zone. Activities in government offices have almost come to a halt as employees are finding it difficult to get to work.

Entry points towards the Red Zone have been blocked by containers, which the government terms a ‘deterrent to security threats’, while members of the protesting parties refer to it as a tactic to keep out potential participants.

All the building’s main entry and exit points for government buildings along Constitution Avenue are occupied by Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and security officials from outside Islamabad.

Khalid Jamil at the Federal Tax Ombudsman office added that their office work was going at snail’s pace. “First PAT workers used to sit outside our entry gate and ask for water and places to pray, now it is police officials asking the same,” Jamil added. He commented that they could not send even send files to the nearby Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) building as it was surrounded by PAT workers.

An FBR official commented that though they are facing problems, they are using Ataturk Avenue to get in-and-out of office.

Staff numbers in the Evacuee Trust building, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Information Technology were also less than on routine working days.

“Half of our staff could not come to office due to the closure of access routes,” said National Vocational and Technical Training Commission Chairperson Khalid Hanif.

A government clerk said that he had finally gotten to office on Tuesday after finding a way through, only to learn that his salary has been docked for absences during the past week.

Most of the clerical and administrative staff at Ministry of Science and Technology was absent as well. An official said on the condition of anonymity that the district government’s “bizarre” traffic plan had made getting to work from Rawalpindi “maddening”.

Staff at the Election Commission of Pakistan had also been absent for the last week, and the numbers sat the office were still quite meagre on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court on Monday also ordered that Constitution Avenue be cleared as it was difficult for judges to get to the building.

Members of parliament are also using alternative routes behind the presidency after PAT workers besieged because of last week’s siege of the main gate by PAT workers. The main gate of establishment and cabinet divisions are also being protected by heavy contingents of police and rangers, while barbed wire was also put on the grills of the building.

The situation at Pak Secretariat is no different as most of the lower cadre staff come from Rawalpindi. Employees using public transport have to get off at stops near Lal Masjid in G-6 or Super Market in F-6and and walk the remaining five-odd kilometres.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2014.