Gas protests perturbed traffic in the twin cities

Violent street protests against the shortage of gas supply all over the country struck the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi on Monday, when a huge crowd blocked the Islamabad Expressway. The mass gathering rallied to block
one of the most-used roads in the city from 11 a.m. and petered out after eight hours of protest.

PML-N legislators with traders on Benazir Bhutto Road organised the major protests. PML-N MNA Hanif Abbasi led one such rally at Rehmanabad in the company of MPAs Raja Muhammad Hanif Advocate, Ziaullah Shah, PML-N Women Wing’s
Zebun Nisa, leader of Markazi Anjuman-i-Tajran Malik Shahid Ghafoor Paracha and his workers. The protestants were accusing the PPP government and gas supplying authorities of deliberately creating the natural gas crisis in the province of Punjab and demanded
uninterrupted supply of gas immediately.

“People elected the PML-N for solving your problems, but the PPP is vilifying Punjab government by halting gas supply to the people,” they said.

The flow of traffic within the city was badly affected by the protests and the Prime Minister Sayed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari needed a helicopter to move between the two cites of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Both
domestic and industrial consumers are suffering from severe shortage of natural gas across the country and the government is yet to take some substantial steps to overcome the energy crisis.

Protestants on Islamabad Expressway kept the traffic jammed for more than eight hours and situation got even worse at the closing time of schools, with the worried parents jostled up to pick their children. Many had to take circuitous
routes to reach the schools but they all were extremely frustrated and worried on arriving late to pick their children. Many ambulances were also seen stuck in the traffic jams, desperately struggling to find their way through but their shattering sirens proved
no good for them.

A number of protest rallies were also observed in different cities of Punjab, raising slogans against the less-bothered government and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGP). Many skirmishes were also witnessed among the protestants
and the security enforcing authorities and a number of them were also arrested as the culprits. 

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Posted by Farhan Hameed on Dec 21 2011. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry