Anti-canals protest chokes cargo flow for fifth straight day

KARACHI:  Thousands of trucks carrying sacrificial animals for the upcoming Eid-ul-Adha, along with others transporting medicines, fruits, and vegetables, remain stuck on both sides of the Babarlo bypass in Khairpur district as a protest sit-in against the construction of canals for Cholistan entered its fifth day, with no resolution in sight.

On Tuesday, new sit-ins have sprung up at Kathore on Super Highway near Bahria Town, Ranipur, Moro and Kashmore almost paralysing the traffic movement. 

The sit-in at Kashmore has also blocked the alternative route of Indus Highway, totally blocking the traffic between northern and southern Pakistan. 

Organized by the lawyers community, mainly Karachi Bar Association and joined in by other social organisations, the protest is being described as one of the largest in the province’s history.

Containers carrying medicines for Punjab and Afghanistan are also among the stranded transport stuck on the highway before district Khairpur.

“Some of these containers carrying medicines are refrigerated while others at room temperature, with the 40C plus temperature the cargo is bound to get wasted,” Saif ur Rehman Khan Wazir, convener FPCCI SIndh Regional Standing Committee on Transport Affairs told Hum News English on Tuesday.

Similarly, the perishable items are also being lost in the high temperatures. Likewise the sacrificial animals are also suffering from heat and hunger. Fow how long the the truckers or livestock caretakers could provide fodder and water to the animals on the highway, Wazir asked. 

The prolonged closure of the highway, forced the Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, to appeal from the protester not to make the lives of common people miserable.

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“It is requested that we carry on the protest, but don’t bother the lives of common people, by blocking the roads, we are hurting our own people,” Murad Ali Shah said on Tuesday.

“I give assurance that canals will not be built,” Chief Minister went on to add.  

The chief Minister said that he hopes that the Prime Minister will take into account the reservations shown by the people of Sindh.

The lawyers representing the protest sit-in claimed that they did not stop the passenger buses and have allowed them to pass.

Largely the passenger buses have managed to use the Indus Highway to avoid this mess, Chaudhry Awais, a Sahiwal based transporter, told Hum News English.

“Container demurrage is rising, shipments are being cancelled, there is no protection to our cargo and drivers and most of all there is no one to listen,” Chaudhry Awais went on to add.

“There will be repercussions of this blocked, on the common people, in terms of rising inflation,” Awais went on to warn.

The cargo destined for the Karachi port is also incurring millions of dollars, as the ship’s depart the port on time as they cannot wait and extend their stay, Saif ur Rehman Khan told Hum News English.

Ultimately, the orders will be cancelled and regional countries will grab the orders, Wazir went on to explain.

It has already become a crisis like situation, the truckers and helpers stuck on the highway are in a miserable situation, as the hotels located on the highways are running out of their stock with no new supplies coming in. 

Likewise, the government or National Highway Authority (NHA) is also losing millions of rupees in terms of toll tax it collects from toll plaza dotted on the highway. Toll tax of each truck is over one-thousand rupees.