LAHORE – Traffic remain choked at various roads of the city on Sunday, as religious parties organised a rally against proposed amendments in the blasphemy law from the Nasir Bagh to the Chairing Cross. Motorists were irked by blockades placed on main arteries of the rally’s route, which caused severe problems for commuters in reaching their destinations.
All kinds of transport were abandoned on the rally’s route and almost half of the Walled City was cordoned of due to security concerns, which caused severe traffic jams. Citizens expressed their concern on the issue, as they were stopped from travelling on specified routes. According to details, the City Traffic Police had deployed more than 600 traffic wardens and 10 inspectors under supervision of three superintendents of police (SP) to control the possible traffic mess.
The Punjab government, the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) and the Lahore City Traffic Police had also arranged parking for participants of the rally but commuters remained disturbed, Pakistan Today has learnt. Divergence routes were provided to commuters but they complained that they were not properly guided by traffic wardens in this regard. Adnan Ali, a resident of the Shahdara Town, told Pakistan Today that he had come to his friend’s house situated at the Waris Road but he got stuck in the traffic when he was going back, as there was no space for moving his vehicle.
Citizen Zain Noor expressing his anger said, “I was stuck in the traffic for more than two hours at the Taxalli Gate, as divergence routes provided by traffic police were also choked”. He said that traffic wardens had failed to control the traffic. Traffic police always blocks the main road after barricading the main arteries, he said.
Citizen Usman Syed said that as he was coming back to his house located at the Davis Road from outside Lahore, he remained stuck at the Mall Road Underpass for more than two hours, as armed policemen and traffic wardens were deployed there but no one guided about traffic divergence points. Syed said that he had never seen such a traffic mess on Sunday.
Lahore Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Captain (r) Ahmad Mobin, talking on telephone, rejected all allegations and appreciated performance of traffic wardens saying that they had managed the traffic effectively. Mobin said that he himself monitored the situation and visited places where any traffic jam was reported but the situation was cleared by traffic wardens afterwards.
He said that traffic police had advertised guidelines for commuters in all leading newspapers. Major traffic jams were witnessed at the Qartaba Chowk, China Chowk, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Government College University Chowk, Taxalli Chowk, Sagian Bridge and the Davis Road Chowk.
