KARACHI: Life became paralysed in the city on Friday as major business centres remained closed, traffic mostly stayed off the roads and educational activities were badly affected on the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) shutdown call along with sit-ins on main roads and traffic intersections.

Patience demonstrated by law enforcers and the provincial government, resumption of talks between the PTI and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to hold inquiry into alleged rigging in last year general elections and tacit support of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement reportedly helped to ensure peaceful atmosphere in Karachi.

A few cracker and grenade attacks reported from the gang-infested Lyari areas, however, left a boy dead and some others wounded. Police said the incidents were result of gang warfare and had nothing to do with national politics.

But a senior police officer admitted that a group led by Uzair Baloch in Lyari had given a shutdown call that largely went unheeded with shops and markets remained opened.

“The PTI staged sit-ins at at least 30 places, blocking roads with burning old tyres and by parking vehicles there,” said Karachi police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo.

“It [the activity] went very smoothly in view of the fact that Karachi has a very bad history of protests,” said the city police chief.

At some places, he said, only vehicles had been parked to block road traffic but there were no protesters.

“We dealt with the situation patiently and facilitated the peaceful protests, as we did not want to provide the party an opportunity to create disturbances,” said the additional inspector general.

The PTI leadership had made a ‘commitment’ that they would not force the markets to close, would not block vehicles of law enforcers and rescue services. However, on Friday morning PTI workers did not follow this commitment when they blocked a part of Sharea Faisal and did not allow police commandos, who were on their way to their duty, to pass through. “It resulted in an exchange of heated arguments between the police and the PTI workers, but the police did not resort to baton charge,” said Mr Thebo.

He said the police provided alternative routes to commuters who did face hardship due to the blockade of the main arteries.

Karachi Transport Ittehad chief Irshad Bukhari said hardly 1,000 vehicles of between 9,000 and 10,000 buses, coaches and minibuses in the city plied on roads in the localities where no protests or sit-ins were staged.

He disclosed that a few days ago PTI lawmaker Khurram Sher Zaman and another leader had called them requesting that public transport be kept off the roads on Friday. The road blockades also ensured closure of major markets though shops and small markets in localities remained opened.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2014