Citizens hail Peshawar admin for limiting demos, protests to Jinnah Park

PESHAWAR: Citizens, especially commuters and motorists, on Monday praised the Peshawar administration for banning protests on the Khyber Road and other important public places in the provincial capital and allocating the Jinnah Park for such activities.

Peshawar Commissioner Riaz Khan Mehsud, after a meeting with labour unions, government and private sector forums as well as political and social sector organisations, had recently decided not to allow protests on the Khyber Road and other important public places as such incidents caused problems to people.

To highlight their issues, the people prefer to stage protests at the Suray Pull and the contiguous Rehman Baba Chowk as both are sited near the KP Assembly. But frequent protests at these points disrupt free flow of traffic on the Gt Road Road, Khyber Road and even Muhammad Rustum Kiyani Road.

The commissioner had announced that the district administration had allocated Jinnah Park in Peshawar for future protests. Riaz Khan Mehsud had issued instructions to the deputy commissioner and the Police Department to contact the protest callers and the department concerned to resolve their issues so that they did not need to go for the protest. Deputy Commissioner Shafiullah Khan, SP Security Sajjad Khan, and other officials had attended the meeting chaired by the commissioner.

Representatives of 70 other trade unions, government employees’ union and political and social organisations were at the meeting. Riaz Mehsud informed the participants of the meeting about the difficulties created for the general public due to the protest demonstrations on Khyber Road, Suray Pul and other important places, and patients, and employees of the public and private sectors suffer in such situations.

He had presented a suggestion for an alternative place for protests. By mutual consent, it was agreed that the Khyber Road and other important places would not be used for protests in future, while the nearby Jinnah Park on the GT Road was allocated for protests in future.

In the meeting, a quick response committee was formed under the deputy commissioner of Peshawar. It would liaise with the organisations giving the calls for protests and arrange negotiations between the relevant departments before the protest.