LAHORE: Protests by milkmen and students of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) at two points on Canal Road on Monday blocked traffic for more than three hours.

It all started when 150 students of BZU began protesting in front of their campus between Ferozepur Road and Punjab University and later moved to the canal, and blocked the road. They were protesting against their university’s refusal to issue them degrees and wasting two years of their education. However, they forgot that their university management and Higher Education Department of the Punjab government had declared their sub-campus here in Lahore illegal and ran a media campaign to warn parents of current and potential students. The students had protested last year as well, but to no avail.

On the end of the same road, milkmen were also protesting against, what they called, highhandedness of the Punjab Food Authority, which was wasting their milk without going through due process for checking quality of milk. They parked their vehicles on both sides of the road blocking it for more three hours – between 11am and 2pm. Their protest lasted for over six hours before they negotiated with the authority’s official and dispersed.

“This is the worst kind of governance,” said a motorist Ajmal. He said: “What should one make of it if 150 odd people can get together and block the busiest road and that too for more than three hours? At both points, the strength of protesters was not more than 150 each. It is happening in a city that has 20,000 policemen.”

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2016