KARACHI: Thousands of commuters on Tuesday spent long hours in their vehicles which remained stuck till dawn in one of the worst traffic jams on Mai Kolachi Bypass and MT Khan Road.

A large number of residents of Sultanabad and surrounding neighbourhoods took to street after midnight against frequent hours-long power outages and acute shortage of water in their respective localities.

Though the protesters finally left the scene after remaining on the Mai Kolachi and MT Khan Road for some time, the situation took an ugly turn as thousands of vehicles, including heavy trailers and trucks, could not move an inch for hours.

One of the commuters, who remained stuck in the traffic jam till morning, told Dawn that he ran short of fuel and had to park his car alongside the road and walk up to his residence in Clifton.

The commuters who were with their families including children were the most affected, while motorcyclists made their way somehow by using pavements, many of them riding wrong sides of the roads.

Another affected person said that there appeared no traffic police all along and some people tried to regulate the traffic, but to no avail. “There was no sign of district police either,” he said, adding that there were also a number of ambulances stuck in the traffic jam.

He said that even a police contingent at corner of US Consulate did not stop vehicles from turning into MT Khan Road.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2022