LAHORIITES have tasted the agony of massive traffic jams on almost all main roads and peripheral arteries during the three Azadi Cup cricket matches. On the one hand, cricket fans enjoyed the spectacular holding of matches after a long spell of isolation because of the tragic incident of attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, but equally the 10 million people of this mega city were subjected to severe chaos on roads.

Almost non-existent trafic management plans and indifferent attitude of trafic wardens resulted into a free-for-all. The worst sufferers were patients and ambulances which could not reach hospitals on time and were stuck for long hours.

It will be better that in the future traffic expertise for such planned big events be also imported as our police have developed only meticulous know-how to escort the ruling elites with gun-waving guards for the last 30 years.

On every point of intersections, people nowadays observe traffic wardens either gossiping in groups or busy texting messages on their mobiles and least concerned about their traffic duties for which they are recruited.

Zafar Iqbal

Lahore

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2017