A week ago, I was on an official visit to Gilgit Baltistan. From Islamabad, via Kohsitan, it took me around 17 hours of continuous drive to reach there. Most of the route is very inhospitable. Being an official government tour, it was well-planned and I had all kinds of help en route. But one thing is for sure, travelling to GB with limited transportation options is surely difficult especially when it’s on two hours’ notice.
November 23, 2024 – The Islamabad administration decided to lock down the city, and emptied all guest houses and hostels, due to an upcoming protest call by the opposition. Students were told at 800 hours to leave the city by 10. A similar decision was made by the Rawalpindi administration.
Collectively there are more than 20 twenty universities in Rawalpindi & Islamabad housing thousands of students across Pakistan including Gilgit Baltistan as well. Not only this, there are college students as well from remote areas of the country in Islamabad for quality education. All were told to leave at hours’ notice.
Now there are hardly two or three bus services including including government-run NATCO, which was also shutdown on the orders of the administration. I couldn’t comprehend how the students were forced to leave their own capital just because of the ill-planning of the government to handle the protests.
This happens every time when there is a need for heightened security in the ruling capital of Pakistan. Cancellation of every academic activity is on top of that. After everything resumes, the faculty is told to complete the credit hours in the bare minimum time to avoid delays in the academic calendar.