KARACHI, Dec 5: On the eve of Eidul Fitr, traffic jams were witnessed in front and near almost all the major shopping centres of the city. As a result, the motorists trying to make their way through Saddar, Liaquatabad, Nazimabad Chowrangi and main Clifton Road had to spend a lot of time behind the wheel.

The Saddar area appeared to be the worst affected. All the roads in the area witnessed traffic congestion. A motorist entering the area, from any side, on an average spent 20 minutes to make his way out of it.

The reasons for the problem were the usual ones: wrongly parked cars, motorists in a hurry, and general indiscipline. At least 50 traffic policemen had been deployed to control the traffic passing through the area. However, the situation obtaining there could only be described as “chaotic”.

The motorists using the Shahrah-i-Pakistan and coming from the Sohrab Goth area, on the other hand, got easy sailing right up to the Liaquatabad area. But near the Liaquatabad market it was mayhem.

Wrongly parked cars, and also pushcarts etc, on the main road had restricted the space available to the motorists. The motorists — mostly in a hurry and thus largely undisciplined — only made the situation worse for themselves.

Due to all this, the traffic had backed up right up to the overhead bridge in front of the Al-Azam Square. And it took at least 15 minutes for a motorist to drive through the area. As a result they mostly reached their offices and businesses rather late.

Similar was the situation near the shopping centres near the Nazimabad Chowrangi, Karimabad, and North Karachi areas.

One motorist talking to Dawn said the traffic police should make special arrangements to deal with the situation obtaining on “Chand Raat”.