Protest causes gridlock in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Worst traffic jam was witnessed as protesting government employees blocked the Khyber Road in the provincial capital.

Thousands of vehicles got stuck in the traffic jam after the employees staged protest outside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly building. Though traffic wardens made efforts to regulate the flow of traffic, they were unable to do so as the traffic was bumper-to-bumper and the vehicles moved at snail’s pace.

The commuters were requested by the traffic wardens through social media and the mainstream media to take the Ring Road instead of entering the city. The Khyber Road and Sher Shah Suri Road are the two roads that connect the University Road and Saddar with city.

The flow of traffic halts whenever the two key roads are blocked as the gridlock inconveniences thousands of motorists and commuters.In the provincial capital and elsewhere, it has become the norm to block a road to put pressure on the government for acceptance of demands.

Government employees and people belonging to almost all walks of life resort to this practice with total disregard to the difficulties caused to other people, particularly the patients needing urgent medical care.

Though staging protest is one’s right, it should not be exercised at the cost of inconveniencing others. Such protests seldom serve the interests of the protesters, but they surly trouble the road users, who have to go through a lot of mental agony and physical hardships.