KARACHI, Aug 27: The City Council meeting convened on Monday to discuss the traffic problem was put off as several members could not attend the session because of a massive traffic jam on M.A Jinnah Road.

Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil presided over the meeting.

When the session began, UC-4 nazim of Site Town Abdul Razak of the Al-Khidmat group drew the attention of the chair to the deteriorating law and order situation in educational institutions, saying that two students had been killed in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre within 10 days but the government had not taken any serious action against the culprits involved in the killings.

He said the victims hailed from Kashmir and Punjab and a negative image of Karachi was being conveyed to those regions.

The convener intervened and told the member that it was not correct to say that the government had not taken the issue seriously. She said the issue had been discussed at a recent meeting presided over by the Sindh governor and she expressed the hope that appropriate measures would be taken to restore peace to the educational institutions.

When the convener wound up her observations, the leader of the house, Asif Sidiqui, drew the attention of the chair to the joint resolution tabled in the house in the last session but could not be adopted because of certain reservations of the opposition.

Mr Siddiqui said the treasury wanted to withdraw the original resolution and to table a fresh one on the traffic problem because of a changed situation arising out of the Supreme Court verdict. He argued that the new resolution was more positive, prepared in view of the SC verdict and considering the ground realities of Karachi.

While the house was debating the traffic issue, there was a severe traffic jam near the council secretariat on M.A Jinnah Road.

The convener had to adjourn the session for Thursday (Aug 30), ruling that there was a lack of a quorum in the house as a large number of members could not attend the session due to the massive traffic jam on M.A Jinnah Road and many UC nazims were busy in preparations for Shab-i-Barat in their respective areas.

Surprisingly, there were no uproar by the opposition who normally go ballistic on such occasions.

Later, talking to newsmen Saeed Ghani of the Awam Dost group said the opposition wanted to debate many city-related issues, particularly the post-monsoon situation and stagnant rainwater on major roads of the city.

Ramzan Awan of the Al-Khidmat drew a grim picture of the city, saying that the civic services had totally failed and there was absolutely no response from government agencies and they were indifferent to public grievances.