VIP Visit: People Of Quetta Suffer Enormously

Quetta – People of Quetta suffered a great deal of nuisance due to the arrival of Prime Minister and his entourage in Quetta, on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reached Quetta on Tuesday morning to participants in All Parties Conference called in Aftermath of Mastung Carnage which resulted in death of 22 passengers.

All the major arteries of Quetta located in vicinity of Governor House were shut down in pretext of security concerns.

Whenever a VIP visits Quetta, all the major arteries are closed down and this has been the normal practice for last few years.

Commuters travelling from outskirts of Quetta to the downtown had to walk through 2 to 3 KM to reach their destination due to closure of roads.

Public transport was not allowed to enter center of Quetta city and passengers were dropped outside downtown which caused huge deal of inconvenience for passengers.

Patients visiting Sandmen provincial hospital had to go through agony of long hours of waiting before entering the hospital, which is situated near governor house.

“I travelled from my village in Kalat district to Quetta for an urgent work but due to closure of roads I will not be able to reach my destination on time,” Murtaza Baloch, told The Balochistan Point. He added, “Now I have to come back to Quetta some other day and this is a huge mental tension for me.”

St. Francis Grammar School, St. Joseph convent school and Sacred Heart School were forced to declare a holiday by city administration today because these schools are situated on the route which is used for VIP movement.

 “Whenever our Prime Minister visits this [Quetta] city, a school day of my daughters is wasted because their school is ordered to close down that day,” Saleem Haider, a citizen told The Balochistan Point.

According to modest estimates hundreds of thousands of people were directly affected due to the road blocks in Quetta for the sake of providing VIP security.

“If Prime Minister and Balochistan government has any concern with sufferings of residents of Quetta then they should conduct all their meetings in Quetta Cantt and spare us from unnecessary mental tension,” Muhammad Siddique, a car owner struck in Traffic Jam told The Balochistan Point.

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Published in The Balochistan Point on June 2, 2015