Extended holidays: Quetta presenting deserted look

QUETTA: The provincial capital of Balochistan was in holiday mode on Thursday as most government offices were closed and streets and roads wore a deserted look. Most people haven’t resumed their jobs and trades as yet. Shops and hotels were closed for want of customers and most shop owners seem to have gone home for Eid. “The traders and shopkeepers in Quetta are usually from remote areas of Balochistan. On Eids, they go and come back after a week,” said a traffic policeman standing idle on the otherwise bustling Jinnah Road. Traffic, according to him, will be very thin until Monday. Attendance was almost nil at the Provincial Secretariat and other government offices on Thursday. “The government employees often spend a week or two in their hometowns,” said a senior official who wished not to be named. The Eid holidays will end by Monday,” he said with broad smile. Quetta valley is a city of more than 1.5 million people— with the overwhelming majority coming from Afghanistan and different parts of northern and central Balochistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2014.