KARACHI, April 17: Beefed-up security for the movement of President Musharraf on Monday added to miseries of motorists, motorcyclists and commuters in public transport as they were trapped on several roads in the flood of vehicles.

Traffic police appeared helpless to make diversions, as a number of roads had been dug up for several months. Long queues of vehicles were seen on Sharea Faisal, I.I. Chundrigar Road, M.A. Jinnah Road, Din Mohammed Wafai Road, Ziauddin Ahmed Road and Rafique Shaheed Road where Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, National Institute of Cardio Vascular Diseases and National Institute of Child Health are located.

Daudpota Road, which leads to the Army House, too remained closed for the general traffic on the second consecutive day.

I.I. Chundrigar Road remained closed for at least two-and-a-half hours during President’s visit to the State Bank. He remained at the State Bank for one-and-a-half hours. One of the busiest commercial roads in the city remained deserted and occupied by law enforcement agencies with special security atop of the building at both ends of the thoroughfare. All petrol pumps and hotels on the road were forcibly closed and the police did not allow parking even on link roads.

Motorists, motorcyclists and public transport drivers got stuck at the Shaheen Complex where traffic signals were switched off and the traffic was manually regulated by the traffic police. The road users were not informed about the closure of the artery.

Aiwan-i-Saddar Road in front of the Governor’s House and roads leading to a five star hotel, where General Musharraf attended a ceremony of the Pak-American Business Council and other meetings, remained closed for traffic causing utter traffic mess on alternative routes. Even pedestrians were not allowed to walk on the service lanes leading to the respective places.

The road running in front of the Sindh Assembly building also remained closed for hours as the assembly was in session. Long queues of buses and minibuses, which were diverted from Daudpota Road to Rafiquee Shaheed Road, resulted in massive traffic congestions on both tracks.

The worst-hit were ambulances which were stranded in the traffic chaos. At various points, ambulance drivers urged law enforcers to search ambulances with their security equipments and allow them to proceed to hospitals but they were denied.

The traffic remained stuck near Arts Council roundabout, where traffic diverted from Shaheen Complex, Aiwan-i-Saddar Road, and road leading to Sindh Assembly building. Traffic was also disturbed and long queues were seen on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road.

Apart from the downtown, the vehicles were stuck in Nazimabad as no proper diversions of traffic was arranged where an underpass is being built. The roads at Nazimabad and Liaquatabad were closed and people were perturbed with the situation as the congestion in traffic has become the order of the day.

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