Protest postponement: govt reopens GT Road

Imran Khan's PTI announced its decision to postpone its much-touted long march to Islamabad two days ago. However, government authorities failed to reopen all routes leading to the federal capital even on Sunday, providing only partial relief to commuters. On Friday, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, following a meeting of the PTI political committee, announced that the opposition party was postponing the planned protest march originally scheduled for September 27 till October 4. Following this announcement, government authorities started an operation to clear hurdles—shipping containers and spiked metal sheets—placed on the GT Road and M-1 and M-14 motorways. The operation to remove the hurdles at Attock Khurd on National Highway N-5 concluded late Saturday night, allowing traffic on the GT Road to resume. Other points along the GT Road were also reopened, and traffic continued flowing on N-5 on Sunday morning. The M-1 motorway—closed in both directions with walls of containers and mud bags erected between Swabi and Islamabad—was also reopened for traffic in the wee hours of Monday. Traffic, however, remained suspended on the M-14 motorway—also known as the Hakla-Dera Ismail Khan section of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor—until 10pm on Sunday. Officials said reopening the motorways was taking time because of the manner in which the roads had been sealed. An officer, speaking to The Express Tribune, said the barriers were installed so firmly that the containers first had to be emptied of sand or mud bags before removal. The officer said work to remove the barriers from M-14 was continuing and the routes would open for traffic as soon as all points were cleared. Meanwhile, the prolonged closure of roads in Rawalpindi and Islamabad amid security measures ahead of the PTI long march has brought commercial activity in the twin cities to a virtual standstill, leaving transport terminals deserted and thousands of daily-wage workers without employment. Transporters said goods terminals remained largely empty, while hotels, motels, inns, marriage halls and private hostels were either closed or operating with little business. Transport Federation Patron-in-Chief Haji Zahoor Arain said transporters had been badly affected by the closure of terminals and demanded that transport stands inside the cities be reopened. He said the temporary reopening of the Attock Bridge demonstrated that roads could be restored when the security situation permitted, urging the authorities to take similar steps for transport terminals and commercial routes in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.