PESHAWAR: The traffic came to a standstill on all major of the capital city on Saturday after nurses of main hospitals marched through the city before staging a sit-in outside the provincial assembly to demand service structure, better health professional allowance, and changes in promotion rules for themselves.

The march stressed out the road users, especially motorists, who remained stuck in long queues for long hours.

On Wednesday, too, traffic mess was seen in the city as transporters blocked major roads for several hours to protest the sharp increase in fees by the transport department.

On Thursday, dozens of nurses from the Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex joined nursing staff at the Lady Reading Hospital from where they all marched up to the provincial assembly and staged a sit-in there on the Khyber Road and thus, suspending traffic.

Nurses marched through city before staging sit-in outside assembly

The traffic police diverted vehicles to Chirgano Chowk and Khyber Bazaar causing a massive gridlock in most parts of the interior city, cantonment and University Road.

The traffic coming in from University Road was also diverted to the Peshawar cantonment areas.

GT Road and link roads also saw a massive traffic jam as hundreds of vehicles were bumper to bumper.

The traffic police didn’t allow public transport vehicles coming from bus stand to cross Arbab Sikandar flyover on GT Road and instead diverted all vehicles to interior part of Gulbahar area.

The situation forced motorists to take a long detour through Lahori Gate and City Circular Road to reach Hashtnagri. The gridlock continued for several hours.

The reports circulating on social media about a terrorist threat in the city contributed to the traffic mess.

Mohammad Irfan said it took him around an hour to reach Tehkal area from Gora Qabristan due to the slow traffic, which was usually not more than five minutes’ drive.

He said similar situation was reported in other parts of the city.

A traffic police official told Dawn that the nurses’ strike and closure of the road was the main reason for traffic chaos in the city.

He said diversion of vehicles to other arteries due to the closure of Khyber Road choked other roads as well.

The official said security checkpoints, which had been put up across the cities in large numbers, also hindered traffic.

He said the area surrounding the provincial assembly, which fell in the limits of Rustam Kiyani Road and Khyber Road, was the most sensitive spot for traffic flow.

The official said usually, protesters tried to arrive at that place and once they reached there, it literally choked in rest of the city.

He said the protest could be recorded even without blocking roads and creating problems for the public but protesters usually did the opposite and closed roads in the first place.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2016