LAHORE Worst traffic jams on main roads were witnessed in the city on Thursday due to protests of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) and All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA). The absence of a contingency plan by the city traffic police further worsened the situation. Long queues of slow-moving vehicles were seen on The Mall, Multan Road, Davis Road, Jail Road, Canal Road, Ferozpur Road and other major arteries of the city. It caused great trouble to the commuters, who remained stranded for hours. Students, teachers and other government and private workers got late from their offices. Traffic police officials seemed completely helpless to handle the situation. Police manhandled and arrested many workers and leaders of the PKI during their protest in front of Lahore Press Club on Wednesday. In the night, a large number of framers from different districts of Punjab started moving to Lahore to protest the arrest of their comrades. As they reached near Thokar Niaz Beg on Multan Road, police stopped them from entering the city. On which, they staged a sit-in. They continued their protest throughout the night and the next day (Thursday). It caused a lot of inconvenience to the passengers coming or leaving the metropolis. They remained stuck there. Trucks, trawlers and other vehicles carrying goods and edibles to supply in the city also could not enter. Multan Road was completely choked from Thokar Niaz Beg to Chauburgi. As the residents of Lahore started going to their work places in the morning, they witnessed traffic jams on Multan Road and took the adjacent roads to reach their destinations. Apparently, the City Traffic Police had not devised any contingency plan for the situation. They did not set the diversions and issued prior intimations to the commuters about the traffic situation. In the afternoon when schools were closing, APCA activists were protesting at Club Chowk. This added fuel to the fire. The Mall was completely blocked for every kind of traffic and vehicles were diverted to already overloaded Canal Road and Jail Road. Blockade at The Mall also affected traffic at Davis Road, Empress Road, Durand Road, Abbott Road, McLeod Road and Allama Iqbal Road too. When contacted, Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Tayyab Hafiz Cheema, the operator said he was busy in clearing the route for Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif. It was really deplorable that while common citizens were stranded on roads for hours, the CTO was on a VVIP duty of clearing the CM’s route in the city. Talking to The News, CCPO Amin Wains said Lahore Police have been utilising all-out resources to maintain the flow of traffic. He said thousands of activists of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad had tried to enter the city on Thursday but policemen stopped them from creating further mess. He said he personally held dialogue with protestors and tried to convince them for a peaceful protest without creating hurdles for traffic. About the increasing number of protests in the provincial metropolis, the CCPO said the departments concerned should hold productive dialogue with the aggrieved parties to avoid law and order situation. To another question about the traffic contingency plans, the CCPO said that City Traffic Police divert traffic to all possible alternative routes but the pressure of traffic on The Mall and Jail Road is so huge that it chokes the traffic of entire city. Meanwhile, the commuters kept on shifting from one road to another all the day in search of a safe passage. One Shahab Ansari told The News that he lived in Johar Town and worked in an office on Davis Road. Normally it would take him half an hour to reach his workplace but on Thursday it took him more than three hours, he said. Another citizen Ayub Mirza was also perturbed by the situation. He said protests and sit-ins have become order of the day in city. Officers of City Traffic Police rather than indulging themselves in useless exercises, photo sessions and publicity stunts need to ponder on policies to maintain uninterrupted flow of traffic in emergency situations, he added.
