People throng banks to get salaries, pensions

After remaining confined to homes for over a week and running short of money, a large number of people, particularly elderly persons, were seen standing shoulder-to-shoulder in queues outside various banks for the withdrawal of pensions and salaries in the provincial capital on Thursday.
A few days ago, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had issued guidelines to all banks regarding maintenance of social distancing for its customers but the situation witnessed by this scribe outside the banks on Thursday was entirely different.
The elderly people, to whom the health experts declared as prime target of coronavirus, were seemed helpless and they complained that the banks should have adopted some other procedure for the clearance of their pensions instead of "forcing" them to go through the conventional methods. "I am waiting for my turn for almost one hour," said an elderly woman while talking to this scribe outside a bank at Model Town C Block.
"They (banks) have not followed any other procedure for clearing my pension," the woman said as she was trying to maintain a distance from other people who were pushing each other and desperately waiting for their turn.
She lamented that the government should have not exposed them to such a situation. In this context, the law enforcement personnel deputed at pickets to control unnecessary movements of the people in the wake of growing coronavirus pandemic were also seemed helpless in managing traffic as a large number of people were seen commuting freely on the roads.
During interviews with some people, who remained stranded in traffic for hours at different locations, it emerged that the financial position of many people is getting worst day-by-day and they have no other option but to come out on roads to fine a work so that they could feed their families and themselves. Exchange of hot words with the law enforcers at pickets and violation of social distancing was also a part of this episode.
Some people, who claimed to be daily wage earners, said that over a week has been passed since the announcement of lockdown, but no one has provided them ration bags till date.