No end to festivity

Islamabad

The Eid festivity is not over in Islamabad even after the passage of the three days post-Ramazan festival.

The public places and parks continue to attract crowds of people, especially the residents of Rawalpindi and adjoining areas, due to the weekend following Eid days.

The roads leading to Faisal Masjid, Lake View Park, Marghzar Zoo, Pir Sohawa, Shakarparian, Fatima Jinnah Park and Saidpur Model Village remained choked on Saturday from the afternoon to night.

Though the traffic police were deployed at major roads, the traffic moved on at a snail’s pace.

The relatively pleasant weather in the otherwise the hot and humid monsoon season also contributed to the influx of visitors to recreational places.

Since there were few public transport vehicles on the road, cabdrivers overcharged commuters at will.

At Lake View Park, Jamaluddin Khan, a resident of Taxila, said he spent Eid’s three days in own city and therefore, he took the family to Islamabad to have fun.

“It’s an excellent recreational spot especially for being located along Rawal Dam. It’s always fun to be here especially with family,” he said.

Cooking food for himself and relatives at the barbecue corner of the park, Nasim Jan said he frequently came over for recreation. He said there was no such park in Islamabad like Lake View Park due the beautiful natural scenery, lush-green lawns, the picturesque Rawal dam view, paved walking tracks, huge bird sanctuary, and a variety of rides and swings for children and youth.

In the day, there was very little transport on the road and taxi drivers were charging exorbitantly, yet many people managed to reach the recreational spots to enjoy the Eid. Many insisted most of dwellers of twin cities had gone either to hometowns or on excursion to hill stations, including Murree, Abbottabad, Swat, Kaghan and Naran, so the crowds seen in the city were of non-locals.