{"id":124669,"date":"2026-04-24T10:42:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=124669"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:42:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:42:36","slug":"parts-of-twin-cities-remain-locked-down-despite-uncertainty-over-us-iran-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/","title":{"rendered":"Parts of twin cities remain locked down despite uncertainty over US-Iran talks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>RAWALPINDI(National Times)-  As uncertainty persists over the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1994216\">\u00a0expected US-Iran peace talks,\u00a0<\/a>the district administrations of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have yet to decide on reopening the closed areas in and around Nur Khan Airbase and resuming Metro Bus, electric bus services and goods transportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the last five consecutive days, streets, link roads, markets and banks around the old airport have remained closed, confining residents of Shah Faisal Colony, Khalid Colony, Gulzar-e-Quaid, Fazal Town and other areas to their homes. Metro Bus Service between Rawalpindi and Islamabad and electric buses on seven routes have been suspended, while goods transport has remained halted since April 19, causing significant difficulties for the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Electricity load shedding has also returned in many areas despite claims by the Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (Iesco) that no outages would be carried out due to heightened security measures in the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Residents of the affected localities said the government should reopen roads to allow movement so that students can appear in examinations, water tankers can reach homes, patients can access hospitals and fresh food supplies can be restored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fayyaz Hussain, a resident of Faisal Colony, said he was facing a water shortage and there was no indication of when roads would reopen for water tankers. \u201cBanks are closed and people are unable to pay utility bills or withdraw cash,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Muhammad Riaz, a resident of Khalid Colony, said his family was forced to rely on available pulses, while children were demanding chicken but there was no supply of food items. He added that while extra security measures had been taken ahead of the expected arrival of US-Iran delegations, Iesco had resumed power cuts in many areas.A bank branch on Old Airport Road in Rawalpindi remains shut on Thursday, with a notice citing closure due to the prevailing law and order situation on police instructions. \u2014 Photo by Tahaam Amir<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRoads are still closed, yet Iesco is conducting load shedding. One wonders how security systems like Safe City cameras will function without electricity,\u201d said Muhammad Nauman, a resident of Media Town. He said outages occurred three times including from 6pm to 7pm, 9pm to 10pm and midnight to 1am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe people pay high electricity tariffs and taxes, yet power remains unavailable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Naseeruddin, a resident of Westridge, said shops and markets were closed at night, yet Iesco continued load shedding citing shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRawalpindi and Islamabad pay their utility bills in full with all taxes, but the government has turned a blind eye to the issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Petrol filling stations are also running dry, as Oil Tankers Contractors Association spokesman Nauman Ali Butt said tanker services had been suspended for the past five days in the twin cities, leaving many stations without supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He suggested that the administrations allow a two- to three-hour window for fuel supply, during which oil tankers could replenish stations under official supervision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe administration can check invoices carried by the tankers, which would help end the shortage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When contacted, a senior district official said the security measures had been taken for visiting foreign delegations, and restrictions on roads, goods transport and metro and electric bus services would be lifted on directives from the federal and provincial governments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RAWALPINDI(National Times)- As uncertainty persists over the\u00a0expected US-Iran peace talks,\u00a0the district administrations of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have yet to decide on reopening the closed areas in and around Nur Khan Airbase and resuming Metro Bus, electric bus services and goods transportation. For the last five consecutive days, streets, link roads, markets [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Parts of twin cities remain locked down despite uncertainty over US-Iran talks - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Parts of twin cities remain locked down despite uncertainty over US-Iran talks - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RAWALPINDI(National Times)- As uncertainty persists over the\u00a0expected US-Iran peace talks,\u00a0the district administrations of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have yet to decide on reopening the closed areas in and around Nur Khan Airbase and resuming Metro Bus, electric bus services and goods transportation. For the last five consecutive days, streets, link roads, markets [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T05:42:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T05:42:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-45-6.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/\",\"name\":\"Parts of twin cities remain locked down despite uncertainty over US-Iran talks - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-45-6.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T05:42:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-24T05:42:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-45-6.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-45-6.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Parts of twin cities remain locked down despite uncertainty over US-Iran talks\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Parts of twin cities remain locked down despite uncertainty over US-Iran talks - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124669\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Parts of twin cities remain locked down despite uncertainty over US-Iran talks - Nation","og_description":"RAWALPINDI(National Times)- As uncertainty persists over the\u00a0expected US-Iran peace talks,\u00a0the district administrations of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have yet to decide on reopening the closed areas in and around Nur Khan Airbase and resuming Metro Bus, electric bus services and goods transportation. 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