Across Islamabad, an unseen workforce starts its day long before many residents of the city\u2019s affluent sectors step outside<\/p>\n
By Dr Muhammad Shahid<\/p>\n
ISLAMABAD: Before Islamabad\u2019s elite sectors wake up, another city is already at work. In the half-light of F-6, F-7, E-7 and F-8, sanitation workers sweep leaves from wide avenues, gardeners trim hedges outside high-walled houses, security guards finish night shifts at gates, domestic workers arrive in vans and on foot, and delivery riders wait outside caf\u00e9s that many of them cannot afford.<\/p>\n
They are the quiet workers of the federal capital \u2014 the people who keep Islamabad clean, guarded, fed, polished and functioning, often without becoming part of the city\u2019s larger public conversation.<\/p>\n
Islamabad was designed as Pakistan\u2019s planned capital: orderly sectors, green belts, diplomatic enclaves, government offices and elite residential neighbourhoods. Behind this organised image, however, is a large labour force that works long hours, travels long distances and often depends on modest wages.<\/p>\n
For many of these workers, the working day begins far from the manicured streets they serve. They travel from Bhara Kahu, Tarnol, Golra, Rawat, Sohan, Khanna, I-10, I-11 and Rawalpindi\u2019s working-class localities. Some spend two to three hours daily commuting to houses, markets, offices and apartment blocks in the capital\u2019s wealthier sectors.<\/p>\n
A clean city and its cleaners<\/p>\n
Sanitation workers are among the most visible workers in Islamabad, yet their personal struggles are not always widely understood. Their work is seen every morning, but their lives are rarely discussed.<\/p>\n
A sanitary worker told this scribe on condition of anonymity that he worked on a daily-wage basis. \u201cI receive Rs37,000 a month. But if I am on leave for any day, the wage for that day is deducted from this amount,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He further said that salaries were sometimes delayed. \u201cAt the end of May, we received the salary for April,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
In January 2025, it was reported in the media that hundreds of sanitation workers associated with contractors hired by the CDA had stopped work in some Islamabad areas after allegedly going unpaid for three months. The incident drew attention to the challenges faced by outsourced workers and showed the need for stronger monitoring of payment systems, safety arrangements and grievance mechanisms. This correspondent approached the CDA chief Sohail Ashraf, via phone, but could not get his comment for the story due to reasons best known to the official.<\/p>\n
Even as the CDA is promoting modern waste-management initiatives \u2014 including a three-bin system introduced at Jinnah Super in 2025 \u2014 workers who handle the city\u2019s garbage also deserve continued attention in terms of timely wages and workplace dignity.<\/p>\n
Guards at the gates<\/p>\n
At almost every gate in Islamabad\u2019s elite sectors stands a security guard \u2014 in winter fog, summer heat and monsoon rain.<\/p>\n
They guard bungalows, embassies, offices, banks, schools, plazas and apartment towers. Many work long shifts, often six or seven days a week. Private security firms advertise guard services across Islamabad, with an eight-hour shift commonly linked to the legal wage floor and 12-hour shifts costing more, though the amount paid by clients is not always the same as the amount received by the guard.<\/p>\n
The guard\u2019s job is physically demanding and often lonely. He may spend the whole night outside a house whose residents barely know his name. He is trusted to protect property, but his own living and working conditions often remain outside public attention.<\/p>\n
Delivery riders and the new urban economy<\/p>\n
Islamabad\u2019s food and parcel delivery riders represent a newer class of urban labour. They are everywhere \u2014 outside restaurants in F-7, Blue Area, G-9, Bahria and DHA \u2014 but their work is still commonly treated as flexible \u201cgig\u201d labour rather than regular employment.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s Labour Force Survey 2024\u201325 included digital platform employment for the first time, showing that gig work has become a measurable part of the national labour market. Gallup Pakistan\u2019s review of the survey noted that online gig work constituted 2.9 percent of total employment.<\/p>\n
In Islamabad, riders face traffic risks, fuel costs, app penalties, uncertain earnings and pressure to deliver quickly. In 2026, foodpanda announced a helmet drive in Karachi and Islamabad, acknowledging rising traffic risks for delivery riders in congested urban centres.<\/p>\n
Such steps are useful, but the growing platform economy also raises broader questions about worker safety, insurance, income stability and social protection.<\/p>\n
Gardeners of the green capital<\/p>\n
Islamabad\u2019s reputation as a green city rests heavily on gardeners and groundskeepers. They maintain lawns, embassies, parks, medians, farmhouses, government residences and private houses.<\/p>\n
Their work is seasonal and physically demanding. In summer, they work under extreme heat; in winter, they arrive before many residents step outside. Many are hired informally by households or through contractors. Few have written terms, health insurance or retirement benefits.<\/p>\n
They help preserve the capital\u2019s image of order and greenery, but many of them live in areas where access to clean water, sanitation and secure housing remains a daily challenge.<\/p>\n
The city behind the city<\/p>\n
Islamabad is Pakistan\u2019s seat of power, but it is also a city of workers who make that power visible, comfortable and functional.<\/p>\n
They serve ministers, judges, diplomats, bureaucrats, journalists, executives and expatriates. They clean government-linked buildings, guard official residences, deliver food to offices and homes, and maintain the houses where decisions are made. Their work quietly connects the formal city with the settlements, suburbs and neighbourhoods from where they come.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s social geography makes this relationship visible. The better-off live in sectors with wide roads, parks and private security. Many workers come from katchi abadis, rural outskirts and Rawalpindi\u2019s dense neighbourhoods. Every morning, their labour connects these different parts of Islamabad.<\/p>\n
A city built on unseen hands<\/p>\n
Islamabad\u2019s elite sectors are often described through property prices, caf\u00e9s, schools, embassies and political power. But another way to understand the city is through the people who arrive before sunrise and leave after dark.<\/p>\n
The sanitation worker who clears the street, the domestic worker who looks after another family\u2019s home, the guard who stays awake through the night, the rider who moves through traffic, and the gardener who keeps the lawns green \u2014 together, they form the hidden human infrastructure of the capital.<\/p>\n
Islamabad may be planned on maps, but it is kept alive by workers who rarely appear on those maps. Their contribution deserves greater recognition, not only as a matter of labour rights, but also as part of building a more humane and well-managed capital.<\/p>\n
As the city grows and modernises, the people who clean, guard, deliver, maintain and serve it should also become part of its development conversation. Timely wages, safer workplaces, reasonable housing, and clearer employment arrangements would not weaken the city\u2019s image; they would strengthen it.<\/p>\n
A capital is not known only by its roads, buildings and green belts. It is also known by how it treats the people who keep it running before the rest of the city wakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Across Islamabad, an unseen workforce starts its day long before many residents of the city\u2019s affluent sectors step outside By Dr Muhammad Shahid ISLAMABAD: Before Islamabad\u2019s elite sectors wake up, another city is already at work. In the half-light of F-6, F-7, E-7 and F-8, sanitation workers sweep leaves from wide avenues, gardeners trim hedges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-article"],"yoast_head":"\n