—-Road closed for traffic as Maryam comes to inaugurate election office
LAHORE: A modest rain on Tuesday inundated the low-lying areas of NA-120 which is the constituency of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court last month. A by-election is scheduled on September 17 which the wife of the former premier Kalsoom Nawaz is contesting.
A rain of only a few hours inundated the constituency that is known for several low-lying areas where the rain water accumulates and takes hours to drain, posing severe problems for commuters and residents, it has been observed. On Tuesday, miseries of residents increased manifold in most of the areas of NA-120 including Karim Park, Mohni Road, Band Road, Islampura, Karishna Nagar, Old Anarkali, Jain Madir and Bilal Gunj after a slight rain, despite the fact that development works of billions of rupees have been started in the area since the schedule of the by-election was announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Amir, a resident of Karim Park, told this scribe that billions of rupees have been spent on the uplift projects in the constituency but nothing concrete could be done to improve the decades-old drainage system of the area that causes severe problems for the residents. While the government is spending huge sums of money on Metro and Orange Train, the rulers are paying no heed towards the drainage system of the city as slight rain halts life in the low-lying areas of the city including NA-120, he added.
The ongoing construction work at Orange Line Metro Train, along with the rain, created havoc for the traffic near the Jain Mandir and Chauburji areas which fall in NA-120. “Long queues of vehicles are a routine matter here and traffic moves at the snail’s pace whenever it rains here,” advocate Shahbaz said who lives near Jain Mandir. He further added that the residents of the area are frustrated with the ongoing work of Orange Train as the project has been lingering on for long because of the sub-judice nature of the project. Ali Naveed Bhatti, candidate for chairman position in UC-65 (which also falls in NA-120), told Pakistan Today that PML-N has been ruling this area for more than three decades but they are still unable to improve the drainage and sanitary system of the area. “The streets of Islampura and Karishna Nagar present the look of streams whenever it rains here but now the people have decided to bring change in the area and PTI will be the winner on Sept 17,” he said.
Meanwhile, the road where Maryam Nawaz was scheduled to inaugurate the election office of her mother near Mozang was closed for traffic, further increasing the miseries of the commuters.
She inaugurated the election office in PP-140 that falls in NA-120 amid the deployment of a heavy contingency of police; the road from Mozang to Ganga Ram was closed for the traffic. The candidate of PTI Dr Yasmin Rashid also inaugurated her election office in UC-61, some yards away from the election office that was inaugurated by Maryam Nawaz on Tuesday. She criticised the government by saying that the Mozang Road has been closed for the ‘princess’ of the ‘royal family’ as she came to inaugurate the election office here.
