Observer Report
The Sindh High Court (SHC) hearing on Thursday a petition on permanent blocking of important Karachi roads has inquired from Traffic Police senior official as to what purpose is blockading the roads serves.
The Sindh court summoned DIG and relevant staff officers to respond to why main arterial roads were being blocked despite the worst traffic jam conditions in the city.
Why the Avari Tower road was barricaded, the SHC asked. To which the traffic police superintendent said it was done to smoothen the flow of traffic.
The court asked who the DG Traffic is, adding to its query that whether it is still the same one who was caught for crimes earlier?
What purpose has the blockading of Avari Tower road served for the past two years and under which law it was done? The court asked traffic police.
The court reprimanded traffic officials noting that Karachi traffic ran grid-locked but traffic police are interested in blocking the key roads.
The lawyer contesting the road blockades said the traffic police are commissioning these roads for private parking.
Fatima Jinnah Road has been barricaded to be handed to private parking management against Rs400,000.
The Panorama Road has been blockaded to be given to another private parking against Rs300,000, the lawyer said in court.
Similarly, the complainant also said S. M. Law College Road, the road opposite the Empress Market, Kamal Ata Turk Road and the Sindh Assembly Road, too, were blocked that hurt the traffic flow causing the worst of jams.
Basic human rights are being violated by the road blockages, the complainant contested before the court, which translates to huge and perpetual traffic jams across trade centres across the city.
