KARACHI: Protests broke out in different parts of the city on Monday as Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers and supporters took to the streets in a couple of districts against the Faisalabad incident and blocked key road links for hours causing a traffic jam and congestion on service lanes.

Dozens of PTI workers converged on Sharea Faisal half an hour before the sunset, blocking traffic on both sides of the road. Motorists had to take alternative routes as the marchers comprising mostly youngsters chanted slogans against the government while condemning the Faisalabad violence. They demanded resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Wrapping party flags around their heads, a number of youngsters reached Nursery, the protest venue, in cars, motorbikes and pick-ups from different city districts.

The police authorities believed the ‘PTI workers defied the set rules’, as they were not supposed to stage the protest on main Sharea Faisal.

When asked about police claims, a spokesman for the PTI said the party had organised the protest just outside the building of its Karachi office near Nursery and the protest spread to the main road and other areas due to an ‘overwhelming number of participants’.

“We organised the protest in line with the decision of our national leadership which announced that it would stage demonstrations across the country against the government brutality in Faisalabad and the killing of our worker,” he said. “The number of participants was so high that it automatically expanded from the service lane to the main road. We didn’t want to cause any inconvenience to the commuters and the closure of the road was not deliberate,” he explained.

He claimed that the protest remained thoroughly peaceful, as the PTI workers volunteered their service to the law enforcement agency to keep things under control.

The police officials, however, believed that the PTI workers were not supposed to stage the protest on the main road and they ‘defied the set rules’. “They [PTI leaders] were conveyed the message very loud and clear but the fact is that due to the sit-in we had to block both sides of the road which disrupted the traffic flow. After an hour, we managed to convince the PTI leaders who agreed to keep at least one lane of the road open,” said a senior official in the east zone of the police organisational structure.

After protest at the Nursery, the PTI crowd moved to Hasan Square and staged the protest on main University Road. The situation caused a traffic jam on University Road, Habib Ibrahim Rehmatullah Road and Sir Shah Muhammad Sulaiman Road. A sizeable number of youngsters also blocked main Five Star traffic intersection that disturbed the entire North Nazimabad traffic system.

However, that demonstration did not last long as the protesters dispersed peacefully on the request of police and traffic authorities.

The PTI leader said they had no further protest plan against the Faisalabad incident, as the party was mainly focussing its attention on the Dec 12 ‘mega event’ in Karachi.

“Today’s protest was in line with the leadership announcement to show solidarity with our workers being targeted in Faisalabad and other parts of Punjab. Now there is no more protest on this particular issue, as the next massive protests would be organised on Dec 12 in different city areas,” said Jamal Siddiqi of the PTI.

A protest demonstration and funeral prayers in absentia for the victim would be organised at Regal Chowk at 4pm on Tuesday, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2014