LAHORE: Severe traffic jam was witnessed on different city roads after lawyers’ protest at the Lahore High Court on The Mall on Monday.

The lawyers were protesting against the court for issuing arrest warrants for the Multan chapter president of LHCBA, Sher Zaman Qureshi.

Mr Qureshi was not appearing before the court in contempt proceeding against him for misbehaving with a senior judge in Multan.

The government has already banned protests on The Mall under section 144. Traffic went out of gear when the lawyers came out of the LHC premises and started a protest. The traffic police cordoned off the road from Regal Chowk to GPO by placing barriers.

The lawyers were staging a sit-in outside the high court on The Mall. The stretch of The Mall between State Bank, LHC Chowk and PMG Chowk was closed for traffic. The protest caused snarl-up on lower Mall, Queen’s, Circular, Davies, Lytton, McLeod, Lawrence, Abbot, Temple, Ravi and Canal roads.

The lawyers’ clash with law enforcement personnel disrupted business activities in the area. Nearby shops were closed and the State Bank of Pakistan building was temporarily sealed.

Wardens switched off the signals and manually handled the vehicular movement. The motorists resented the traffic officials for keeping them in the dark about road closures.

A [traffic] police spokesman said they had installed diversions diversions at Regal Chowk, Queen’s Road, in front of Avari Hotel and at Istanbul Chowk to facilitate the motorists.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2017