Adiala Road lockdown sparks chaos

On the occasion of the scheduled meeting day with the former Prime Minister and founding Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party's call to stage a sit-in outside Adiala Jail, protesting the denial of a meeting for the past 29 days, brought life across the entire Adiala Road area to a complete standstill on Tuesday.

In anticipation of the protest, Adiala Road was fully sealed. All shops on both sides of the road, including vegetable and fruit stalls, pushcarts, medical stores, petrol stations, and all government and private schools, were shut. Public transport, as well as the Bykea motorcycle-ride service, was suspended, paralysing daily life across the area.

Shipping containers and barbed wire were placed across all adjoining streets and link roads leading to Adiala Road, leaving nearly 250,000 residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods effectively confined to their homes.

Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Dr Hassan Waqar Cheema had imposed Section 144 on Monday night, ordering Adiala Road to be sealed. SHOs from 12 police stations, accompanied by heavy contingents of officers, were deployed for security duty.

The Adiala Road Traders' Association and the All Pakistan Private Schools organisations strongly condemned the closure of routes, calling it a complete failure of the government. They stated that shutting down all commercial activity for a day had inflicted losses of tens of millions of rupees on the national economy. Daily-wage earners were not permitted to sit along Adiala Road for work.

From the Overhead Bridge to Gorakhpur, every shop, plaza, petrol station, and school on either side of Adiala Road remained closed. More than 250 vegetable and fruit vendors who typically set up stalls along the roadside were not allowed to operate.

Public transport from Raja Bazaar and Saddar to Adiala Road was suspended, as was the Bykea service, preventing thousands of residents of the surrounding localities — including those living in government housing colonies — from travelling to the city centre for work or daily affairs.

Mobile phone and internet services were completely shut down within a one-kilometre radius around Adiala Jail.

Traders' representatives — Fayyaz Abbasi, Raja Gulfraz, and Ajmal Khan — said that whatever political disputes the government may have, their businesses should not be destroyed as a consequence. "If the situation is so sensitive, the government should simply transfer Imran Khan to a jail in Islamabad. There is no justification for harassing the public and the traders. With every shop, plaza, and market on Adiala Road closed today, what are the children of the daily-wage workers supposed to eat?" they asked.

Members of the private school administrations, Dr Mahmood and Asghar Ali Shah, said that December examinations were underway, yet at 11pm they were abruptly informed that no school was to open on Tuesday. "Many children arrived in the morning only to be sent back. The government must formulate a consistent policy for such sensitive matters. The academic system should not be subjected to constant disruption," they said.

Road closures delay court hearings

RAWALPINDI: Due to ongoing protests by PTI, none of the accused suspects expected in courts in the tehsil courts of Gujar Khan, Murree, Kahuta, Taxila, adjoining tehsils of Adiala Jail, Islamabad and other districts could be produced on Tuesday.

All roads leading to Adiala Jail were sealed and prison vans used for transporting the accused from the jail to the court were also parked on the road as blockades as PTI Founder Imran Khan's sister visited him amid party members rallying around her. The accused coming to the court from Adiala Road and other close by areas could not appear due to the road closures. Due to the non-appearance of the accused, 9,273 cases were left pending in the district courts of the twin cities yesterday.

At the same time, the Rawalpindi District Bar had also gone on strike against the killing of lawyers in Jhang and Vehari. Lawyers boycotted the courts, due to which, the subordinate courts of the twin districts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad had to set new dates for hearings in cases due yesterday.

Meanwhile the sessions courts of Rawalpindi have given physical remand to 24 accused arrested in various cases, 12 have been sent to jail on judicial remand, nine accused have had their bails granted, seven have been rejected, four women have been issued divorce degrees, four accused have been declared absconders, eight have been issued arrest warrants, one woman has been allowed to go home from Darul Aman, 10 women have had their husbands summoned in new family cases and five defaulters of financial institutions have had their salaries stopped.