ISLAMABAD: The hustle and bustle of the capital city has fully revived with the natives returned from their hometowns after celebrating the religious festival of Eid-ul-Azha with their families and relatives.
Majority of the natives came back from their hometowns on Sunday and resumed their offices and businesses from Monday after spending more than a whole week combining back and forth weekends and working days of Monday and Friday with the Eid holidays.
A large number of natives have been settled in federal capital due to jobs and study purposes and they leave for their hometowns to celebrate every important occasions including both Eid festivals and other important ceremonies with their family and relatives.
“I have been living in Islamabad for the last ten years for job purpose and always spend Eid-ul-Azha with my parents and other family members in my hometown which is located at the far flung area of Balochistan”, Amir Khan, a government employee said.
Talking to APP, he said, “It takes long hours to reach my hometown so I took leave for two days and combined both of the weekends to spend maximum time with my family as it is difficult to afford travel expenses frequently due to my financial circumstances”.
It has been observed that the local markets and shops were also not fully opened on Friday which made it difficult for the residents and those who returned from hometowns to purchase the daily food and other essential item.
Shaista Hameed, a teacher living in G-8/1 said, “We returned from our hometown in Faisalabad on Thursday night due to my husband’s duty on Friday but couldn’t get vegetables and milk owing to closure of markets.”
“We have to roam around the nearest sectors to manage some groceries as the shops as well as cash and carry in G-9 Markaz were also closed till Saturday”, she said.
Murad Ali, a government employee said, “Only three Eid holidays from Tuesday to Thursday announced by the government compelled the officials like me to take leave of Friday or Monday to club weekends with eid holidays for spending more time with our families in native towns”.
“Keeping in view the rising COVID-19 cases again, we wanted to avoid visiting home towns and other places with gatherings in future to keep ourselves safe from the virus so we spent maximum time with families on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha”, he said.
The main markets, food outlets and restaurants of the capital remain closed which made difficult for the bachelors and on-duty staff to manage food.
The public transport plying in Islamabad was seen very limited during the Eid holidays but now the hustle and bustle of the cities has been restored with culmination of holidays.