Unprecedented security arrangements in Islamabad are leading to horrendous traffic jams and have become a major source of daily inconvenience to the people commuting to the capital from surrounding areas. It includes those with jobs in Islamabad, as well as students attending schools, colleges and universities.
The new security plan prepared by Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration to save the capital from further terrorist attacks has become the main cause of huge traffic jams forcing people either to wait for hours inside steaming cars/buses/minivans or walk on foot for many kilometers to reach their destinations.
Government has received threats of more suicide attacks and it has blocked various roads leading to constitution avenue, diplomatic enclave, parliament, Pakistan Secretariat and other government installations in the Red Zone.
Islamabad was sealed and security agencies including police and Rangers were directed to check each and every vehicle entering the capital, which has resulted in traffic jams. Law enforcement agencies have also completely closed many link roads, with no alternate route provided to motorists regularly travelling on these roads. This has forced motorists to drive on footpaths and green-belts along the closed link roads, and the police watches them do so blithely.
As a result of these security measures traffic jams in Islamabad have become the order of the day and hundreds of vehicles are seen stranded on the entry points of Islamabad particularly at Bara Kahu, Convention Center Chowk, Serena Hotel Chowk, Golra Morr, IJP Road and Faizabad, where police have erected barricades for checking.
Huge queues of stranded vehicles angrily blowing horns and using abusive language against the administration has become a routine on Islamabad roads. And a journey of few hundred meters takes hours to complete.