It was not a Lollywood film scene that the residents closed their doors and the businessmen shutter down their markets when the villain was about to enter their locality.

Rather, it was the soft-spoken and gentle human – Shafqat Mahmood, the federal education minister – whose arrival at a Sukkur locality on Saturday morning saw the authorities forcing the closure of the shops, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Markets were ordered to shut down along the route of Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood’s convoy as part of a protocol.

Strangely, PTI, the very party, whose leaders used to criticise PML-N and PPP government ministers quite often for their protocols during their visits to different towns and cities, has itself been found fond of protocols.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImF3SgdFL6A

This became quite apparent during Shafqat Mahmood’s visit to Sukkur. When the minister reached Minar Road, all shops along his route were closed.

The shopkeepers told the media that normally they opened shops at 9 AM, but on Saturday they were told not to open their shops until the minister left the city.

They said they were already facing financial problems that now they had been made to tolerate ministers’ protocols.

When 24News TV channel inquired from the minister about the closure of shops on his arrival, the latter denied any such thing had happened, adding he had not asked anybody for the protocol.

On one occasion during his talk with the media, his tongue also slipped as he said he was the minister for interior only to correct himself later that he was the minister for education.