PTI stages rally four founder’s release

Citizens stuck for hours on Sharae Faisal as police erect barricades

KARACHI:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) staged a rally from its headquarters in Karachi, Insaaf House, in the Nursery area to Quaid's mausoleum on MA Jinnah Road on Sunday.

PTI activists braved police barricades, baton and arrest during the rally, while commuters suffered hours-long traffic jam due to the melee. Party's central leader Sher Afzal Marwat said they would hold a mammoth rally in the city on April 28 to highlight their struggle for the release of the founder of PTI.

Addressing party workers at the Quaid's Mazar he reiterated that 17 candidates of PTI had won National Assembly seats from Karachi in 2018, however, their mandate was stolen and given to MQM-P. Marwat said that the struggle will continue till the release of the founder of PTI.

The rally led by Marwat reached Jinnah's mausoleum via Shaheed Millat Road. A large number of children, women and elderly also participated in the rally.

The participants of the rally raised slogans in favour of the PTI founder and condemned the barriers erected by the police.

Marwat said in his address that the rally was peaceful, but the police disrupted it. He said that PTI workers were arrested despite informing the administration about the rally route. He asked Bilawal Bhutto to order the police to release PTI workers.

The poor strategy of the police to stop the rally led by PTI leader Sher Afzal Marwat from Sharah-e-Faisal Insaf House became a torture for the citizens.

Police kept the road to Insaf House closed for the whole day by placing barriers and stationing personnel. However, in the afternoon, mobiles were parked on Sharae Faisal, which badly affected the flow of traffic. Commuters passing through the main artery of the city got stuck in an hours-long traffic jam along with many ambulances.Some people tried to use the service road, which was also closed by parking prisoner vans and police mobiles.

With the arrival of the rally, the track of SharaeFaisal from Nursery to Metropole was completely closed. Long queues of vehicles were formed due to which citizens were stuck in traffic jam for two hours. Before the departure of the rally, the second track was also closed for traffic. There were reports of the rally route being blocked at other places in the city as well, due to which the citizens passing through most of the major roads of the city faced agony.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2024.