Maryam Nawaz appears before JIT: An agonising day for commuters, motorists

Islamabad

Owing to strict security arrangements made on Wednesday when Maryam Nawaz Sharif was to appear before the Joint investigation Team (JIT), traffic remained jammed due to closure of various main roads of the federal capital.

Students and a large of commuters of the twin cities had to face severe problems and they could not reach their work places and universities in time. The traffic police had no idea or proper plan to divert traffic to alternate routes during the traffic jam, which continued from morning around 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. 

Patients, some of them in ambulances failed to reach the Polyclinic or PIMS. The motorists tried to use alternate routes from sector I-8 but failed. Police did not allow them to make their way from nearby streets

There was bumper to bumper traffic jam here at Highway Road, Expressway Road, Murree Road, 9th Avenue and Zero Point Road. Security officials stopped motorists at sector I-8. Motorists at Benazir Bhutto Road and Khanna to Faizabad also faced worst kind of difficulties to move on. The situation prevailed for 3 to 4 hours. Long queues of all kinds of vehicles between Faizabad and Khanna Bridge on the Islamabad Expressway were seen for over two to three hours due to security arrangements. The travellers had to bear severe hot weather on the roads and had no option to go anywhere as all major ways had been blocked by security officials

Meanwhile, the 9th Avenue which serves as the main avenue for commuters between the twin cities and the connecting roads of sectors H-8 where Federal Judicial Academy and sector I-8 were also closed.

The patients and their relatives intending to reach Shifa International Hospitals also had to return disappointed.

"I am trying to take my ailing mother to Polyclinic hospital to see a doctor to treat my sick mother," Sajida Bukhari along with her mother said. “What is this? Why are authorities so callous and apathetic to human misery” she asked.

Muhammad Shafiq, driver of an ambulance said, “There is a serious heart patient in my ambulance. I am trying to find a way to reach PIMS but security officials are not allowing me to proceed,” he said. Police said the security arrangements were made in order to avoid any untoward incident.