Protesters block Park Road after robbery

• Sunday, 07 April 2013 

Homer Baloch

ISLAMABAD: Furious protesters blocked the Park Road for more than two hours by protesting against the Bani Gala police due to a robbery which occurred in Jagiyot village in which the citizen were deprived almost 0.2 million rupees and one citizen injured, on Saturday.
A large number of residents of Jigiyot village demonstrated against the robbery incident in which the robbers deprived the citizen from their cash during day light while the police remained silent while the robbers managed to escape successfully. The demonstrators raised slogans against the police in front of the Bani Gala police station at 9:30 and continued their demonstration for more than two hours demanding the police to arrest the robbers immediately and also ensure the safety and security of the citizens.
An eye witness of the incident Muhammad Maskeen, a resident of Jagiyot and working as a driver in district court, told The Spokesman, “On Saturday at 4pm, eight men carrying arms stopped the vehicles at Jigiyot road and started robbing them. The men confidently robbed almost eight vehicles on depriving them from almost 0.2 million rupees in which, one million was snatched from a Shehzor driver who was carrying payment of the goods he transferred to somewhere. There were also two police men patrolling but they did not interfere the robbers and kept a complete silence.”
He said that the robbers also injured his son during the robbery. “My son Zeeshan who also works as a driver was among the victims. He tried to escape from there but two robbers attacked him by hitting him with their weapons. Zeeshan in his attempt to escape reversed his car and hit a tree on road side which injured him badly,” Maskeen added.
The incident raised a wave of anger among the villagers and in result, a large number of men blocked the Park Road in Chak Shahzad area and demonstrated in front of Bani Gala Police Station and raised slogans against them. The police registered the FIR (No 30) of the incident but the demonstrators were not satisfied with the FIR. A villager during the demonstration said, “At the time of robbery, one of us called the police to inform them about the incident but no one in the police station responded the call. The police arrived after two hours of the incident and started asking us where the robbers are. The police could arrest the robbers by arriving at the crime scene immediately but now after four hours of the incident, the registration of the FIR will not be enough to calm us.”
Bani Gala Police SHO Fayyaz Ranjha when contacted told The Spokesman that the FIR of the incident has been registered but the police have neither arrested any of the robbers, nor any operation and activity against them has been started yet.

Youth dies in elevator:

Death in elevator raises storm at tower

• Monday, 01 April 2013 

Homer Baloch

ISLAMABAD: The residents of al-Mustafa Tower where a youth died in a lift accident on Sunday put their heads together on Monday over the poor maintenance of the building. They were also annoyed with the police for not registering an FIR due to an alleged patch-up among the victim’s family and the management of the building.
According to the details, the members of the Towers’ Residence Association during the meeting discussed the poor maintenance of the building, fearing of another fatal incident like the October 8, 2005 in which Margallah Towers, in their neighborhood, had collapsed during the earthquake due to its poor condition.
The members of Al Mustafa Towers Residents association during their meeting decided to bring the matter into the Supreme Court by demanding the court to take a suo motto action on it regarding human rights. A H Aslam, a resident of al-Mustafa Towers and member of the Residents Association told The Spokesman, “The yesterday’s incident wasn’t first of its nature. During the current month, the residents of the building have witnessed two more cases regarding power failure of lifts. A few days ago, two kids were stuck in the lift, while in another incident, a receptionist and two other men, including a foreigner, were also stuck up in the same lift. The receptionist was injured in the incident. If such incidents continue to happen, it may cause a disaster like Margallah Towers incident.”
Shahida Jaffrey, president of the Residents Association said that the association has written two letters and a reminder to CDA Chairman Tahir Shahbaz, requesting him to take notice of the poor condition of the building and fall of the lift, but the chairman has not replied for any letter yet. Shafeeq Sawati, the vice president of the association, said that the resident of the building has paid huge amounts to the builders regarding lifetime maintenance and security but no one knows what they did with the money.
He blamed the builders has also pressurized the family of the diseased to sign a patch up bid with the help of local police. He further said that now the association has decided to bring the matter into the notice of Supreme Court by submitting and requesting it to take a suo motto action of it.
On the other hand when contacted, the builder of Al Mustafa Towers Ashraf Dhedhi told The Spokesman that the incident was truly an accident as the other person in the lift did not even get a scratch in the accident. However he said the matter regarding the maintenance is there as the residents are not paying their monthly amount of maintenance fees.
Zakir Ali, the Station House Officer of Shalimar Police Station, when asked about the FIR into the incident, said that the police could not lodge the FIR as the victim’s family has signed a patch-up deal with the management of the building. It may be mentioned that Imran, aged 20, had died in the incident. 

Aabpara Market without parking space

• Saturday, 09 February 2013

Photo by Author

HOMER BALOCH

ISLAMABAD: Despite the fact that the concerned authorities should provide proper parking area to the people visiting markets, the visitors have no other choice but to park vehicles on roadside or empty area near Aabpara market as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) could not open the planned parking area on time.
The main commercial hub of the capital turns into a crowded place when a large number of people visit every evening but they find it hard to park their vehicles as the market has no proper place or space for the parking. Ikhlaaq Ahmad, a visitor, told The Spokesman that, “I came here to buy some medicines but it took me almost 10 minutes to find a space to park my vehicle as the market has no proper place for parking.”
He said that the slot allocated on the other side of road for parking was insufficient. Ali Ahmad, another visitor, stated, “I had to park my car far away from the shop I needed to visit because I did not get any space nearby that shop, and it looks like the concerned authorities has no planning to facilitate citizens.”
All Pakistan Anjuman-i-Tajiraan Vice President Muhammad Ajmal Baloch told The Spokesman that the traders were also facing problems regarding parking slots as they also need to park their vehicles at market. He said that the issue would be solved as a new parking area in the market would be opened for the public in the next week, and hopefully, the CDA chairman himself would inaugurate it.
“Every day I park my vehicle at the residential area which is close to Aabpara because it was turning very hard for me to find a parking space near my shop daily. There are many other shopkeepers who are either somehow managing to park their vehicles nearby their shops or in market, or are turning towards the residential area for this purpose,” said Rashid Ali, a shopkeeper of the market. A traffic official requesting anonymity told The Spokesman that the parking issue in Aabpara has caused a big problem regarding traffic because many of the visitors park their vehicle close to road which disturbed the whole traffic system. A few years ago, the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) had requested CDA to allot a parking area to shift out the burden on roads, and the civic body then had announced the parking area but the project could not be finalized due to some internal politics.

CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said that opening of the new parking area in Aabpara was delayed due to some internal issues of the civic authority regarding the approval. But soon, he said it would be opened for the public parking and the parking issue would be resolved soon.

Saidpoor village's transportation:

Capital’s rich village has poor transportation system

• Friday, 08 February 2013

Photo by SALMAN MUSHTAQ for The Spokesman

HOMER BALOCH

ISLAMABAD: Saidpoor, historically a rich village, is located at the foothill of Margalla near F-6 Sector where a few years back the village was renovated into a model one with major development carried out by the civic authority. Since, a number of posh hotel chains have opened up; however, the residents are still deprived of adequate transportation facilities.
The population consisting almost 3,000 people is not provided any direct route from their town to the major markets of the capital like Aabpara, G-7, G-8, and most interestingly Jinnah Super which located very next to this village, makes the situation regrettable. Most of the people in the rural community are doing low income jobs and every morning they have to go to the capital city for their work, for which they need to change two to three public transportation vehicles to reach their work place on time which irks the movers with a loss of time and money.
Rustam Ali, a resident of the model village, told The Spokesman that a lot of students and working people like him were living in this area by sharing a room or a place as the areas nearby were very expensive to live. “We are finding it very difficult to reach our offices and other places on time because we are not provided any direct route to the main commercial areas of the city,” he said.
Rawalpindi-Islamabad Transport Association Chairman Sultan Awan told The Spokesman that keeping the recent high rise in fuel prices in view it looks difficult to provide a new transportation route to the areas where the transporters could not get passengers in numbers. “It is true that people in those areas are facing problems regarding their transportation. Though few vans are running between Peshawar Morr and Margalla road but still they usually hire a cab to reach their nearest Super Market in F-6 to get to a further route for G-6 and other sectors,” he said.
When contacted, an authorised person of the Capital Territory told The Spokesman that ICT allots new transportation to any area when its residents register application but no one has registered any application to us yet. “It is the first time that someone has contacted us about transportation issue of the cultural village,” he said.