KARACHI: Megacity Karachi, the pulsating heart of Pakistan’s economy, is currently in the grip of a crippling traffic crisis, with citizens enduring hours-long commutes as a confluence of protests, infrastructure failures, and security closures grind the city to a halt, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday.
What was once a manageable rush hour has devolved into a daily test of endurance, he said, adding in recent days, major arteries have been blocked, turning routine travel into a logistical nightmare, he said.
He said on August 20, a sit-in by lawyers near the Chief Minister’s House forced the closure of roads in the South district with containers, causing severe congestion that paralyzed one of the city’s central business districts for hours.
The situation has been exacerbated by a series of unrelated but compounding factors, he said. On August 22, residents in areas like Liaquatabad, Pak Colony, and Nishtar Road took to the streets to protest prolonged power outages that have left neighbourhoods without electricity for up to 12 hours. Demonstrators blocked intersections with burning tires, causing congestion that spilled into the South district, a day when some religious processions also brought additional closures.
He said the journeys that normally take minutes stretch into hours, with some travellers stuck for four hours between S.I.T.E and Liaquatabad.
However, the current gridlock is merely a symptom of a deeper, chronic structural collapse, he said, adding M.A. Jinnah Road, one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares, has become a symbol of this administrative failure.
Shakoor said the ongoing construction of the Green Line BRT extension, combined with rampant encroachments and double-parked vehicles, has left little room for traffic, he said, adding the University Road also continues to become a nightmare for commuters.
The PDP Chairman expressed concern that the road has been “destroyed from a traffic-management perspective,” with little hope for improvement. He said the breakdown extends beyond urban planning to national resource management.
He said that frequent road closures, often for security reasons, are leading to the massive wastage of fuel and lost productivity.
With cars stuck idling for hours, the city is burning through precious petrol and diesel, creating an economic burden that impacts the entire nation.
He said infrastructure planning is failing to keep pace with the city’s logistics needs. Recent criticism has been directed at the Karachi Port Trust (KPT); with the Sindh government attributing past gridlocks to poor operational planning that overwhelmed the road network, specifically on Mauripur Road and Mai Kolachi.
Adding to the crisis, the megacity remains vulnerable to natural disasters, he said. Earlier this year, heavy rains exposed the urban infrastructure’s fragility, with wall and roof collapses leading to casualties and further disrupting traffic.
While new initiatives, such as the launch of China-made EV buses and the partial reopening of Jahangir Road, offer a glimmer of hope for the future, they have yet to alleviate the immediate daily suffering of millions, he said.
As the megacity inches toward a potential shutdown threatened by transporters, the situation demands urgent, coordinated intervention.
He demanded for a comprehensive strategy that addresses illegal encroachments, better planning for construction projects, and a more predictable security framework that does not come at the expense of public mobility. “Without decisive action, Karachi risks being suffocated by its own traffic.”
He said protest is democratic right of people but nowhere in the world are busy roads allowed to be blocked by people for hours or even days.
He said cities like London and Paris also witness protests and processions but one lane of the road is always kept open during these protests and processions.
He said the constitution of Pakistan guarantees free movement of citizens and blocking this free movement is a constitutional violation.
He said if the government fails to take action against the road blockers it means it itself is also involved in violation of the constitution. He said political and religious parties should sit with the government to develop some SOPs for protests, rallies and sit-ins.
While no one should deprive the people of their democratic right of protest, some ways and means must be found to ensure public mobility and smooth running of traffic during protests, rallies and processions, he concluded.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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