Street protests leave city traffic in a mess

Traffic on several major roads remain suspended for more than four hours due to a surfeit of street protests.

LAHORE:

Traffic on several major roads remained suspended for more than four hours due to a surfeit of street protests on Thursday. The reasons varied from anger at Raymond Davis’s release to demands for salary raises and against the anti-encroachment drive.

The protestors blocked the roads and diversions fom 10 am to 2 pm causing problems for the commuters as well as traffic wardens.

Three major protests were held at Charing Cross from 10:30 am to 2 pm by the Young Doctors’ Association (YDA), the Teachers’ Union and the All Pakistan Clerks Association.

YDA members also protested at Jail Road holding traffic from both sides from 10:30 am and 1 pm; at Ferozepur Road where traffic was blocked during 10:30 am to 2 pm; and at Canal Road where no traffic was allowed through the Ferozepur underpass to Jail Road underpass from 10:30 am to 2 pm.

Traders from Montgomery Road and Tyre Market in Nila Gumbad protested at Bota Mal Chowkl against the district administration’s anti-encroachment campaign.

Lawyers blocked the road at GPO Chowk for about an hour; tyres were burned at Kalima Chowk where traffic remained suspended for an hour due and the Islami Jamiat-i-Talba activists blocked the Egerton Road and the Davis Road converging in front of the American consulate for more than two hours to a protest against Raymond Davis’s release.

A traffic warden, talking to The Express Tribune, complained about how citizens were inconvenienced by the protesters. He said, “They promise to remain on roadsides and create no hindrance to traffic, but then get carried away.”

He said the proximity of the timings of protests and school and college dismissals, reduced the traffic to a mess.

Anjum Javed a school teacher, on his way home said that while the protests might be justified, the protesters had created problems for many people in many ways.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2011.