RECENTLY, I happened to visit Islamabad airport to receive my daughter arriving from Karachi on a PIA flight (PK-308), which was six hours behind its scheduled time (5.55pm). It was already midnight by the time I reached the airport.

At the terminal, some strict measures had been taken owing to the Covid pandemic.

The visitors were forced to stay far away from the international and domestic arrival and departure areas with no seating arrangements for the people; many of them elderly persons, women and children.

Since the flight was continuously getting late, and I and my wife were in distress, we looked for ways to help relax our tiring muscles while waiting for the flight to land. Luckily, we found one solitary bench next to a water cooler and the nearby toilets.

While waiting I would go intermittently to check the flights information display board only to know that it was further delayed by a few more minutes. The people out there would come frequently to attend to the call of nature or to quench their thirst with the only available facility there.

What was harrowing to witness was that the users had to drink water with two stainless steel glasses chained to the machine as the facility lacked any disposable paper glasses.

Likewise, the adjacent lavatories were in pathetic and unhygienic conditions, with no janitorial staff around to clean up the mess.

In such a situation I wondered about the logic of taking these kinds of precautionary measures by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) when the authorities concerned were themselves playing as an agent of spreading the coronavirus.

Munir Ahmad Jan
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2021