KARACHI, April 20: Different city roads including the main artery of M.A. Jinnah Road on Tuesday witnessed traffic jams caused by a protest rally organized by the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba near Jama Cloth Market against the controversial contents in the revised textbooks.

The flow in vehicular traffic was disturbed when students belonging to IJT blocked M.A. Jinnah Road at noon in front of Radio Pakistan building. The traffic flow was normalized after five hours at 5pm. Students from different educational institutions marched from Dow Medical College to Jama Cloth Market, where IJT nazim Tahir Akbar addressed the gathering.

He served a 72-hour ultimatum on the government with demands of removal of federal education minister Zubaida Jalal, disbandment of the revision in textbooks and ban on the sale and purchase of revised textbooks.

He vowed to continue the protest until their demands would be met. "We have only blocked one artery and if our demands will not be met, we will block different city roads including those leading to the Governor's House, Chief Minister's House and the Sindh Assembly," he maintained.

The protesters, holding placards and banners, chanted slogans against the government for receiving dictation from the United States. The placards were inscribed with slogans like 'Deletion of Quranic verses from textbooks at the behest of the US unacceptable' and 'textbooks against ideology of Pakistan unacceptable'.

Some youths intercepted buses and minibuses and made their tyres flat to block the traffic. Later, the MMA leaders Mohammad Hussain Mehnti and Nasrullah Shaji asked the protesters to end the demonstration after which they dispersed.

During the protest rally, heavy contingent of law enforcers were deployed to maintain law and order. The traffic police diverted the traffic flow to alternative routes from Tibet Centre on M.A. Jinnah Road coming towards the Mereweather Tower.

DSP Mohib Ali said that the traffic was diverted towards Regal Chowk and it was allowed to proceed to Mereweather Tower through I.I. Chundrigar Road. Similarly, the traffic coming from Tower on Shahrah-i-Liaquat was not allowed to move on M.A. Jinnah Road and it was diverted to Burnes Road from Fresco Chowk.

"The diversion remained affected for four hours and we opened the roads after 4:30pm," the DSP added. He said that the traffic flow was disturbed due to the rally, but the traffic police managed it and diverted to alternative routes.

DSP Haseeb Beg said that the police did not use force to disperse the protesters rather they negotiated with them. He said no untoward incident took place and the protesters dispersed in the evening. When the protestors reached near Jama Cloth, area shopkeepers closed their businesses, PPI adds.

Addressing the protesting students, IJT Nazim Tahir Akbar said students were compelled to stage sit-in at the main M.A. Jinnah Road as they had been given "lollypops" for the last three months. "We are being assured that changes in textbooks will be rectified soon but no step has been taken so far," he alleged and said "un-elected and autocrat" governments could only understand the language of protests.

Later, MMA MNA Muhammad Hussain Mehnti while adressing the protesting students said that the MMA had boycotted the meeting of a committee, which was set up by President Musharraf to review changes in curricula.

He said that President Musharraf was the person who ordered these changes. "There is nothing to discuss and review. They know what they have changed and what we are demanding," he said.