RAWALPINDI: All roads to Fawara Chowk will remain closed for visitors to Raja Bazaar and adjoining markets for the social media workers’ convention of the PML-N which will be addressed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz on Sunday afternoon.

The stage has been set up on Liaquat Road near Bara Market where a traffic gridlock was witnessed on Saturday due to the closure of the road. Though the city traffic police have made alternative arrangements, patients going to the District Headquarters Hospital and visitors to Raja Bazaars faced problems.

The convention to be held at Fawara Chowk at 2pm is expected to be participated by tens of thousands of PML-N workers from across the country. Murree Road as well as Liaquat Road have been decorated with banners, placards and hoardings having pictures of Maryam Nawaz, Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Hamza Shahbaz and even former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

“I am Nawaz Sharif” was mentioned on posters, banners and billboards beneath the picture of Maryam Nawaz.

PML-N’s social media workers’ convention will be held on Liaquat Road

The preparations for the convention also caused a massive traffic jam in Raja Bazaar, Liaquat Bagh and on Murree Road. Scores of ambulances carrying patients got stuck in the gridlock.

Interestingly, officials of the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation were seen hanging banners and repairing broken streetlights from Liaquat Bagh Chowk to Fawara Chowk.

Against a ban, the PML-N displayed banners and advertisements on the metro bus track and the Parks and Horticulture Authority failed to remove them. Advertisements and political banners are not allowed on pillars of the elevated road.

Rawalpindi Mayor and PML-N Metropolitan President Sardar Naseem told Dawn that his party wanted to hold the convention at Liaquat Bagh but due to security reasons permission was not granted.

He said Fawara Chowk had a historical significance and for the first political visit of Maryam Nawaz to the city, the PML-N had decided to hold the convention on the main road. “Though it could have been easy to fill Liaquat Bagh, we chose Fawara Chowk for the show as people of Rawalpindi will turn out in a large number to express their feelings for Nawaz Sharif,” he said.

“All arrangements for the social media convention have been completed. Maryam Nawaz will be accorded a warm welcome upon her arrival in the city which is considered to be a bastion of the PML-N.”

He said a welcome camp would also be set up at Committee Chowk for Maryam Nawaz. “We have mobilised all our leaders and workers to make the convention a success,” he added.

All public representatives and union council chairmen and vice chairmen have planned to take out rallies from their areas to participate in the convention.

On the other hand, PTI MPA Arif Abbasi told Dawn that the PML-N was using state machinery for the arrangements of the convention.

He said when the PTI displays banners in the city they are removed within an hour but when it comes to the ruling party even pillars of the metro bus elevated track are used for publicity. He claimed that all government officials had been asked to attend the public meeting of the ruling party on Sunday.

A meeting was held at a private hotel in which Mayor Sardar Naseem and some MPs of the PML-N participated. The participants reviewed arrangements for the convention.

It was decided that all the UC chairmen and MPs would reach the venue in small groups to avoid traffic jams.

The traffic police have announced a special plan to facilitate the participants of the convention and the citizens. More than 2,000 policemen would be deployed for security and traffic duty.

City Traffic Officer Chaudhry Shahid Ali Yousuf said traffic would not be allowed towards Fawara Chowk and would be diverted to the substitute routes. He said five DSPs, 25 inspectors/incharges, 224 wardens and 26 junior wardens would be deployed to regulate traffic.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2018