KARACHI, July 7: A large number of people, including women and children, went through a terrible ordeal when police brought the vehicular traffic on and around the Aiwan-i-Saddar Road to a grinding halt amid the hot and humid weather conditions to facilitate movement of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday.

In a repeat of their usual practice on such occasions, police allowed no vehicle to move on until the prime minister reached his destination. The so-called security arrangement caused a massive traffic jam on many major and smaller arteries leading to the Aiwan-i-Saddar Road.

Small children kept crying and looking desperately at their accompanying adults while the vehicles they were travelling in remained stuck in the jam.

Police erected barricades on the Aiwan-i-Saddar Road to close it for vehicular movement in the afternoon as the traffic volume on roads started increasing. The move resulted in traffic congestion on the adjoining roads and thoroughfares while the vehicles heading towards the barricaded area started queuing up at Shaheen Complex, Deen Mohammad Wafai Road, Sarwar Shaheed Road, Fountain Chowk, Abdullah Haroon Road and Metropole circle.

The jam ran into hours with hundreds of vehicles, including buses, minibuses, coaches and private vehicles finding no option open but to stay stuck. The occupants of these vehicles had to sizzle without water, food or drinks available to them.

Some drivers of the vehicles at the tail of long queue were seen attempting U-turn to get out of the mess, but in vain. Their attempts only added to the misery as it further aggravated the mess. The traffic police also appeared helpless in discharging their duty.

The situation on Sharea Faisal, from Metropole roundabout to Gora Qabristan, was no different, as thousands of vehicles had to move at a snail’s pace.

The hardest-hit were the patients on way to hospitals in ambulances. The ambulances kept blowing their emergency sirens but could not find a clear way.

Similar congestion was seen at the traffic signal on Sharea Faisal a road from which leads to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Rafiqui Shaheed Road. The National Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases, the National Institute of Child Health and the Kidney Centre are also located on the same road.

A motorist said that he was on his way to Soldier Bazaar but got stuck in the deluge of vehicles near the Governor’s House. After remaining stuck up for one-and-a-half hour, he had to turn back and drive towards Clifton to escape the even terrible mess on Deem Mohammad Wafai Road to where the traffic was being diverted, he added.

REACTION: he Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has flayed the massive traffic jam in the city during the VIP movement on Friday, and termed the closure of roads for security reasons ‘an anti-people step’ and ‘an evidence of the administration’s incompetence’, adds PPI.