KARACHI, Dec 17: City witnessed massive traffic congestion on various roads and thoroughfares on Saturday, as the police blocked some arteries for the movement of the prime minister’s motorcade.
Although the traffic police issued advisory for people to avoid using some roads as they could suffer delays while driving their vehicles, the police did not intimate citizens about closure of some inevitable roads, which they did without any prior announcement causing traffic congestions on several roads in downtown.
The traffic was clogged badly on I.I. Chundrigar Road and its all link streets as the police had erected barricade on the Aiwan-i-Saddar Road and closed it for a few hours. The other roads including the Club Road and portion of Abdullah Haroon Road were also closed for some time, causing traffic congestions on those roads leading to the blocked ones.
Traffic on the I.I. Chundrigar Road remained clogged in the evening and all of its link roads were congested with vehicles. The impact of the congestion affected the M.A. Jinnah Road and Shahrah-i-Liaquat.
Besides, the Zaibunnisa Street and Abdullah Haroon Road in the commercial hub of Saddar were bunged up with vehicles due to the security measures taken by the traffic police for the prime minister’s movement. The traffic kept on moving at snail’s pace and occasionally it was completely stuck up for several minutes. The situation remained same till the late evening.
The unannounced closure of main roads during business hours created a hotchpotch in Saddar and the traffic was clogged on different roads including Deen Mohammad Wafai Road, Sarwar Shaheed Road, Sharah-i-Iraq, etc. All of these roads were fully packed with vehicles and the traffic police were unable to clear the mess.
The traffic blockage was also felt up to Garden Road and Nishter Road, beyond the control of traffic police. Most of the signals were switched off and the traffic police officials were seen making efforts to regulate the unruly traffic.
A motorist said the prime minister was heavily guarded at the cost of the citizens and so was the president whenever they visited the city. He said, “Why should the premier not take care of his citizens. His orders not to put people in trouble were never followed by the administration and he has never noticed the grievances of people.”
