LAHORE: Several hours protest by local news channel City 42 employees on Jail Road on Tuesday threw traffic out of gear and caused major gridlocks in all related arteries.

Two other protest rallies against blasphemous caricatures by the All Pakistan Clerks Association (Punjab chapter) and the Namoos-i-Risalat Action Committee on Lower Mall and The Mall further disrupted the vehicular flow on major roads.

Most of the policemen who accompanied the rallies, and traffic officials acted as silent spectators.

The City Traffic Police reported traffic snarls on The Mall, Jail Road, Lower Mall, Queen’s Road, Davies Road, Lytton Road at Mozang crossing, PGMI crossing and Data Darbar.

A number of employees of the channel gathered in front of their office on Jail Road around 2:30pm against what they called stoppage of their transmission in parts of the provincial capital and raised slogans against the government.

The protesters blocked one way of Jail Road in front of Kinnaird College. City 42 Chief Reporter Asad Sahi said up to 400 employees gathered on one way of the road after their transmission was gone off-air on cable from Monday night. He, however, did not say who was behind the move.

Sahi said the protest continued till 7pm after PML-N MNA Pervaiz Malik reached the place to give assurances that the channel’s transmission would be resumed.

He claimed that not even a single ambulance was stopped to reach either the Punjab Institute of Cardiology or the Services Hospital on Jail Road.

The CTP spokesman, when contacted, said the protesters of the channel only blocked one way of the road and traffic from Canal-Jail Road crossing to Shadman remained open.

He said diversions were placed on all affected roads to regulate traffic during different protests.

“It took me 35 minutes to reach Shimla Hills from Canal-Mall Road crossing via Edgerton Road by a car and what I observed were long queues of motorists on The Mall,” said Muhammad Tahir of Valencia Town.

He was of the view that the channel people blocked the main road unnecessarily at the cost of motorists, suggesting the government to stop people from assembling on roads leading to hospitals and specify some place for protest.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play