KARACHI: Rafique Shaheed Road in Bizerta Lines, Cantt, better known as the road on which major hospitals like the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), the National Institute of Child Health (NICH), the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the Kidney Centre are located, has been made one-way.

Quicker and easier access to this road from Lucky Star on Sharea Faisal and from Kala Pul on Korangi Road have also been blocked by concrete barriers.

One may reach it either from the Lucky Star flyover or the narrow turning next to Hotel Regent Plaza. And then you can only drive through as driving the other way is not allowed. What’s more, half of the flyover bridge is also closed by police barriers so that no one dare go the other way.

One sees so many tired-looking folks walking the other way after visiting one or the other of the many hospitals on this road. “I am returning from my regular check-up after valve replacement surgery at NICVD,” said Zahida Pervez. “No rickshaw driver is willing to take me this side towards Sharea Faisal so I am walking the distance. As it is I came here all the way from Rasheedabad. That was strenuous in itself and now this,” one heart patient told Dawn.

“Have some fear of God in your heart,” a very angry and disgusted Pakhtun man, with his burqa-clad wife holding a sick child in her arms, said to a traffic constable managing traffic while preventing it from going the other way. “Running from doctor to doctor at the hospital was a strain in itself. We are also carrying a sick child. We just need to stop a taxi and go home. But thanks to you, there is none going our way. Everyone says they are heading towards Cantt Station! Why would we go to the train station. We are not leaving town. We need to get home, which is that side,” he pointed towards Sharea Faisal.

“We are human beings, too, and we are also sick and tired of watching ailing people suffering like this due to the distances they now have to travel due to this new rule. We are aware that these poor people will only be able to find public transport after a long walk and then since it would be heading towards the Saddar side, they will get stuck in the traffic jam around the Hotel Metropole. It’s a big mess and extremely inconvenient. But what can we do? We have our orders,” the traffic police constable said.

Ambulance drivers, meanwhile, said that they were allowed to drive in any direction on the road. “But once we go against the traffic, we end up blocking the road for everyone, including ourselves. And with an emergency patient it gets to be a big problem,” said a driver with the Al Subhan Ambulance service.

Encroachments on road

“We have seen people suffering from heart attacks expiring in ambulances as we make a long detour to arrive at the NICVD from the other side. Even if we come against traffic on this road, we waste time and there have been deaths then as well. With a person who has had a heart attack every second counts,” said Ali Haider, a Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation volunteer.

“Not just heart patients, women in labour have had babies in ambulances while the driver is trying to get them to the gynaecology section of the JPMC,” he said.

“They say they have made this road one-way to do away with the chaotic traffic. But there are all these vendors here encroaching the footpaths and road, along with the illegal chemist shops here. The police here extort money from them to the amount of Rs35,000 a week so they get to stay here. Meanwhile, the poor patients get to suffer as they try to find their way on this road,” he said. “To add insult to injury there are overflowing gutters all over this road and the patients who have to walk are absolutely miserable,” he added.

When Dawn called Dr Seemin Jamali, head of JPMC’s emergency section about the state of affairs she, too, highlighted her distress. “This road has four major hospitals, a mortuary and the Sindh Medical College. People approaching each of these places are at a complete loss after realising that the road is now one-way,” she said.

“Poor people approaching from Korangi or Landhi come through the Kala Pul but that way is blocked, too. They have no other choice but to leave their bus and take another going through the Regent Plaza route on Sharea Faisal.

“It is horrible. I have seen a head-on collision happening in the chaos created at the Kala Pul side and then those injured in that accident also couldn’t reach the hospital through the earlier straight and simple route. They had to be brought all the way from Sharea Faisal. It is most unfortunate that sick or injured people are made to suffer further this way. My heart goes out to them,” she said.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2016