KARACHI, June 10: A serious traffic jam was witnessed in the downtown area on Friday evening owing to the beefed up security in view of Muttahida Majlis–i-Amal’s plan to stage a sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly and the Governor’s House.

The law enforcing agencies blocked several roads by parking water tankers resulting in a traffic chaos during the evening rush hours.

Motorists were reported stuck up in the jam up to several hours on I.I. Chundrigar Road and adjoining lanes. People returning home from work faced a bumper to bumper jam on one of the busiest arteries known for housing financial institutions and media organizations. There was a total traffic muddle at the Shaheen Complex traffic section where traffic coming from the four directions had stuck up. To make the matter worse, signals were switched off by the traffic police in order to regulate the traffic manually.

Police had parked water tankers at the Aiwan-i-Saddar Road as part of the security at both the ends. Similarly, M.R. Kiyani Road was also blocked by parking the water tankers and the traffic coming from the I.I. Chundrigar Road was diverted to Club Road. A few hours later, M.R. Kiyani Road was opened for traffic, but Aiwan-i-Saddar Road remained closed. Subsequently, Shaheen Complex and M.R. Kiyani Road experienced extra burden of traffic.

A sever traffic jam was also seen at the Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road.