Pakistan

Everyday life: Presidency fills protesters’ water needs

PAT workers use broken water pipe, tap to wash clothes, bathe.

Photo: Rizwan Shehzad Photo: Rizwan Shehzad/rizwan Shehzad September 09, 2014

ISLAMABAD:

People taking baths, doing their laundry and washing cars on the Constitution Avenue right next to the Presidency welcome a visitor to the ‘revolution march’ of Pakistan Awami Tehreek.

No one seems to be bothered about the laundry and bath water flowing into the important buildings. “Where should we go to have a bath? There is no harm in taking a bath here. These buildings, after all, belong to the people,” said an elderly man who was soaping up.

Some protesters were draped in shawls and shorts, other wore trousers and shalwar qameez.

The Presidency has become a prime location for protesters to take a bath and do their laundry as a water pipe installed inside the boundary wall has been a source of uninterrupted water supply. In addition, a broken pipeline has taken the shape of a fountain.

“The pipe was broken the day the police tear-gassed the protesters,” said Arshad Mehmood, a PAT worker who came from Malaysia for the march. “This fountain saved a number of people from falling unconscious because of tear gas.”

Participants brushed aside the threat of spread of dengue from the stagnant water by saying they were out for a noble cause and will not be affected by any such disease. “We are here for a noble cause. Allah won’t harm us with any deadly disease,” said 14-year-old Hassan Mohiyuddin, who came with his family from Lahore.

Asked if they would allow such things if Tahirul Qadri was the president, he said it will not happen. “When Qadri Sahab would be president, things won’t come to this stage. People will be given their rights and no one will feel deprived.”

Mohiyuddin and others present on the site said water being drained into the Presidency was not an issue as it was going into the manholes located inside the premises. They added that law enforcers standing guard at the gates and around the fence had no objection over their activities.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2014.