Islamabad residents pay for unexpected SCO summit lockdown

ISLAMABAD: The administration on Wednesday sealed several shops and detained shopkeepers in a bid to enforce the blanket lockdown it imposed on Tuesday without any prior notification.
The residents of the capital city paid a heavy price for this unprecedented move, as most of them were seen running from pillar to post to purchase essentials.
The lockdown was enforced even though the deputy commissioner, Irfan Nawaz, as well as other officials of the administration last week assured that businesses and commercial centres would not be shut down during the Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO) summit.
However, on the first day of the two-day event, businesses were forcibly closed and shopkeepers were detained for resisting the government directive.
Instead of locking down the Red Zone where the SCO summit was scheduled or the high-security zone from 3rd Avenue to Faisal Avenue and from Margalla Road to Khayaban-i-Suharwardi, the administration and police acted ‘unprofessionally’ and took this step without any proper planning.
Police and administration officials told Dawn that unprecedented security measures were taken for the security of about 900 foreign delegates who arrived in the capital for the SCO summit.
“Such an event was held in the capital after 27 years and Pakistan cannot bear any mishap during the summit, especially in and around Islamabad,” they claimed. The officials disclosed that the decision to shut down all commercial centers was made on the morning of Tuesday and implemented in a hush-hush manner.
All the commercial centers, including grocery stores and eateries, were, however, closed without alerting residents, who faced the consequences of such a move. Besides, banks were also closed and ATMs of the majority of the financial centers were found to be out of order.
The majority of residents, except those who could afford to buy their groceries in bulk, were found roaming from one sector to another in search of edibles for their families.
On Wednesday, the miseries compounded after the administration closed a number of shops and restaurants in different areas of the capital. A sealed order issued by the magistrate was affixed outside all such shops and restaurants.
Few shops and restaurants remained open in different sectors with their shutters half down from where the residents were able to buy food and other stuff.
Meanwhile, the capital police also set up at least 30 pickets at different points in the capital, including Embassy Road, Khayaban-i-Suharwardi, Srinagar Highway, Nazimuddin Road, Agha Khan Road, QAU Chowk, Shahdara Road, Nilor, Bari Imam, Sector F-6/3, Faisal Chowk, Faisal Avenue, Jinnah Avenue, Fazal-i-Haq Road, G-7 loop, Shakarparian, and Parade Ground.
Over 1,200 personnel were also deployed at these pickets to intercept the possible movement of people towards and inside the Red Zone.
Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2024