RAWALPINDI: Traders from Faizabad have asked the district administration to remove containers from Murree Road and open it to the public and have threatened to block Double Road otherwise.

Addressing protestors on Tuesday, representative Anjuman-i-Tajran Faizabad warned Double Road will be closed by 2pm on Wednesday if Murree Road is not opened.

Traders’ representatives said businessmen at Faizabad are incurring huge losses due to the closure of roads by the district administration after the sit-in by Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah at the Faizabad Interchange.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has urged the Supreme Court to ban the blocking of roads during protests as it affects patients the most.

In a statement, PMA Secretary General Dr Qaisar Sajjad said members of the association are concerned by the blocking of roads due to the sit-in at Faizabad Interchange in Islamabad and Numaish Chowrangi in Karachi.

“It is very regrettable that the government has failed to provide relief to [citizens] in Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Karachi due to sit-ins in these cities...The use of roads for rallies, processions and for any other [such] purpose causes immense misery for the people, particularly for the healthcare providers and the ailing people,” he said.

The association wrote to the chief justice of Pakistan last month, appealing to him to take suo moto notice of such situations and permanently ban the use of roads for processions, sit-ins and other such purposes.

An eight-month old baby died during the recent Faizabad sit-in because the protestors did not allow the ambulance to go to the hospital.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2017