KARACHI, Feb 14: The city government’s plan to make the I.I. Chundrigar Road a bus-free zone from Wednesday was deferred on Tuesday as the police were placed on alert to tackle a possible backlash of violence, which broke out in Lahore the very day.

Sources said the police had informed the transport department officials to postpone the plan’s implementation, as the priority was to maintain law and order at a time when there had occurred a violent protest in the Punjab province against the publication of blasphemous cartoons in western press.

The police did not want to divert their attention towards implementation of traffic plans from maintaining law and order in the city in the case of mass protests.

Confirming the decision, the DIG Traffic, Falak Khurshid, said the implementation of the new traffic plan to make I I Chundrigar Road a bus-free zone had been postponed for an indefinite period and a new date would be announced later.

However, a senior official in the Transport and Communication Department of the city government said the plan had been deferred due to the country’s law and order situation for five days and it would now be launched on Feb 20.