MUZAFFARABAD: Despite heavy downpour since early morning, normal life returned to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Monday, following the conclusion of a six-day shutter-down and wheel-jam strike by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC).<\/p>\n
Markets were abuzz with shoppers, banks were swarmed by cus\u00ad\u00adtomers, and roads in major towns, particularly Muzaffa\u00adrab\u00ad\u00adad, rem\u00adained choked with long qu\u00ad\u00adeues of vehicles throughout the day.<\/p>\n
Attendance in government of\u00ad\u00adfices \u2014 thin last week due to the unavailability of public transpo\u00adrt and non-use of official vehicles \u2014 was reported to be near normal.<\/p>\n
The biggest crowds, however, were witnessed at banks, which had technically remained open during the lockdown, but saw little or no activity. Government and private sector employees thro\u00adn\u00adg\u00ad\u00aded the branches to withdraw their long-delayed salaries, while pensioners stood in queues for cash.<\/p>\n
Many ATMs were either empty or out of order, having not been replenished for days due to the uncertain situation. Ironically, fe\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00adderal minister Ahsan Iqbal, a member of the federal negotiating team, was also seen returning empty-handed last Thursday eve\u00adning after trying his luck at four different ATMs in the capital.<\/p>\n
Even those using mobile banking apps faced disappointment as internet and data services had been drastically throttled during the week, disrupting electronic transactions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had money in my account but no way to access it,\u201d said Rakhshanda Maqbool, a schoolteacher, expressing frustration after finally withdrawing her salary on Monday.<\/p>\n
With fresh cash in hand, cro\u00adwds also poured into grocery sto\u00adres and markets, where sales far exceeded the usual day\u2019s turnover. Many households had run out of food supplies during the weeklong closure, while shortages of medicines and household goods had also deepened.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s footfall was extraordinary,\u201d said Zafar Mir, owner of a local grocery chain. \u201cPeople were desperate to restock after a week of uncertainty and shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pharmacies, though technically exempt from the shutdown, had also remained largely closed. Faisal Javed, owner of a leading pharmacy in Muzaffarabad, said, \u201cWe had to call in all our staff to\u00ad\u00adday. Many customers prefer buying medicines only from us, and they had been waiting for days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Educational institutions, too, regained their usual hustle and bustle, with students returning to classrooms after an unplanned break.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a meeting of 16 government secretaries was held under the chairmanship of AJK Chief Secretary Khushhal Khan to review implementation of the decisions reached in the agreement between the federal ministers and the JAAC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already moved a summary for cabinet approval of the agreement,\u201d Mr Khan told Dawn. \u201cA reference has also been sent to the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs for ratification by the federal cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n
He confirmed that all detained JKJAAC activists had been released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MUZAFFARABAD: Despite heavy downpour since early morning, normal life returned to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Monday, following the conclusion of a six-day shutter-down and wheel-jam strike by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC). Markets were abuzz with shoppers, banks were swarmed by cus\u00ad\u00adtomers, and roads in major towns, particularly Muzaffa\u00adrab\u00ad\u00adad, rem\u00adained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12483,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12481\/revisions\/12483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}