Islamabad: The Metro buses remained off the dedicated tracks in Islamabad and Rawalpindi for a fortnight on Friday putting out commuters. The suspension of the fast bus service, which covers key areas of the twin cities and is normally used by around 120,000 people daily, has occurred over security reasons caused by a sit-in by the activists of religious groups at the main Faizabad intersection on IJP Road and Islamabad Expressway. The sit-in has also led Rawalpindi's administration to close major roads, including IJ Principal Road, Stadium Road and Peshawar Road, by placing containers and thus, causing massive traffic jams in the areas near Faizabad in the morning, afternoon and evening. The people commuting between the twin cities for one reason or the other complained that they'd been suffering a lot of inconvenience due to the suspension of the service plying the 22.5km route. They said they used either slow-moving minibuses and wagons or fast taxis to reach their respective destinations. The commuters complained that the cabbies overcharged them. Clerk Jehandad Khan, who travels between home in Rawalpindi's Shamsabad area and office in Islamabad's Pak Secretariat twice daily, said the prolonged suspension of Metro bus service had stressed him out a great deal. While complaining about traffic congestion during peak hours on the Murree Road, the 52-year-old regretted that the sit-in had made him take two public transport vehicles and cover some distance on foot to travel between home and office. Commuter Muhammad Zaman regretted that wagons weren't allowed to ply the Murree Road and therefore, the people without own conveyance suffered a lot. Commuter Majid Khan came down hard on the administration for allowing a 'handful' people to hold the two cities hostage for over two weeks and demanded an immediate crackdown on them to ease the sufferings of road users. A Metro Bus Station staff member said the bus service would resume only after the sit-in ended. He feared that the protesters could attack Metro bus stations as happened in the past.
