ISLAMABAD: Workers of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) lifted their virtual siege of the Pak Secretariat early Friday but full work could not resume in the offices there because of lingering uncertainty and rains.

PAT protesters withdrew “for good” from the checkpost they had set up at the main gate of the Secretariat after storming the vast fenced office complex on September 1. However, the big police contingent deployed against them was still there.

PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri had ordered his followers to clear the way to the Secretariat for government employees while addressing them during a heavy downpour late Thursday night.

Rehan Cheema, who works in the Secretariat, told Dawn that most government employees were not aware of the development.

“Since I live in Gulshan-i-Jinnah, close to PAT sit-in, I checked the place early in the morning. I found that all barricades had been removed and access to the Pak Secretariat was clear,” he said.

Sit-in in front of Parliament to continue

But when he later reached his office, he saw thin attendance in the Secretariat offices. “Although senior bureaucrats were there,” he said, “majority of the lower staff had not reported.”

Those who cared to confirm the way had been cleared reached their offices around 11am.

Loss of the cars and motorcycles parked outside the Secretariat, smashed by the PAT raiders on September 1, was said to be another reason for the wait-and-see approach of the low-grade government servants. They are not allowed to park their vehicles inside the Secretariat complex.

“We should be allowed to park our vehicles inside the Secretariat like the higher grades,” said Muhammad Ali, a government employee.

Some employees informed their offices that they could not attend because they were busy pumping out rainwater that had flooded their houses.

Meanwhile, the demand to move the PTI and PAT sit-ins on the Constitution Avenue somewhere else persists.

PAT media coordinator Ghulam Ali, however, said access to government buildings in the area would not be barred but the sit-in in front of the Parliament House would remain where it is.

Published in Dawn, September 6th , 2014