The whole Information Ministry of Pakistan including all departments remained out of service of providing the latest updates on the beginning of the Independence Day celebrations of the country for the first time in history on 13 Aug from afternoon to after midnight.
Press Information Department, Associated Press of Pakistan, Radio Pakistan and Pakistan Television were not able to share the pictures and videos of the main event held in Islamabad in which President, Prime Minister , Field Marshal and other services chiefs were present.
PID’s News Service Website remained unreachable all the time and the newspapers and tv channels failed to get the pictures and vidoes of this main national event.
The reason is security ! This scribe himself watched at the Press Information Department , the whole staff was releived before 3 PM afternoon and sent to home. The same was the case at adjacent head office of Associated Press of Pakistan.
Interestingly, ISPR even did not share anything in the meanwhile about this high profile ceremony and the newspaper had to use portraits or screenshots from the live videos only that were being aired on some officially allowed media including PTV.
All journalists hardly reached PID passing through blockades on side roads of Express Way Islamabad. They waited for PID personnel to reach PID from ISPR with invitations but 90 % of them had to face awkward situation when they could not find their names in the approved list.
Another disturbing matter was the closure of all roads leading towards Jinnah Sports Stadium or around it. The main ceremony was held here at 8 PM night but the offices , roads , everything was closed before the eveing and that without any prior notice.
It created hardships for the travelers to reach their destination in time and the open roads even remain jam packed with heavy traffic for hours. In short, the start of the independence day celebrations was marred by restrictions on the citizens !
