Sindh Minister for Energy and Planning Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has expressed hope that the protesters would move to one side of the road if they do not call off Karachi sit-ins for recent killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Parachinar.

“We have spoken to the administration and I hope if the sit-ins are not ended they will be on one side of the road,” he said while appearing via video link on the Aaj News programme News Insight with Amir Zia.

The sit-ins, which have persisted for a week, have blocked major thoroughfares in response to the recent killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Parachinar.

Protesters have demanded the reopening of a road in the Kurram district city that has been closed for 90 days, affecting access to essential food and medicines, as reported by traffic police and organizers.

Activists and leaders from the mainstream religio-political party Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) stated that they would continue their sit-ins across Karachi after failed negotiations with police and city officials a day prior.

The provincial government has requested the Ulema to chalk out the positive outcomes of the talks, the minister said and appreciated MWM leader Raja Nasir Abbas’s statement which called for not making people suffer.

He claimed that roads were still blocked despite assurances from the leaders during their first meeting. Shah added that the provincial government urged them to move to one side of the road as the roadblocks were causing problems for the people.

The minister clarified that the government urged the protesters to clear the road right on the first day. He claimed that Ulema told him that some people do not listen and put blockades on the roads.

‘Protesters have not blocked roads’

MWM leader Allama Hasan Zafar Naqvi, who is leading the protest in Karachi, claimed that misinformation was being delivered about the sit-ins on media. He admitted that roads were blocked in a few areas, which the party’s volunteers opened.

“I am at Numaish, and traffic is flowing freely. Since the first day, we have not stopped any traffic. We are positioned on one side while vehicles continue to move on all four sides,” he told News Insight with Amir Zia.

He joined the show via video link from the protest site. Naqvi claimed that they did not block roads and there was misreporting related to the protests.

“Tell me a country where the government seals roads and shuts down cities. The situation is not as it is being reported; the roads are open, and the media is portraying a biased narrative against us,” Naqvi said.

He added that his party supporters did not block the road on Lasbela and Teen Hatti. “They are blaming us for this. No roads are closed by us. They are doing by themselves on some points.”

When asked whom he was referring for roadblocks, Naqvi said that it could be the city administration or the provincial government.

He hoped the government would allow them to continue the protest until an agreement was reached in Parachinar during the grand jirga. “We are appealing that facilitate and manage protests.”

According to a statement from the Karachi Traffic Police spokesperson, sit-ins took place at 13 locations throughout the city.

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Key areas affected include MA Jinnah Road near Numaish Chowrangi, Kamran Chowrangi in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Jauhar Mor, Block 19-20 in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Safoora Chowrangi, Abul Hasan Ispahani Road, Five Star Chowrangi, University Road near Metro, Shamsuddin Azeemi Road in Surjani Town, Sharea Pakistan at Ancholi, Nawab Siddiqi Ali Khan Road in Nazimabad-1, Power House Chowrangi at Nagan, and Sharea Pakistan at Ayesha Manzil. Traffic has been redirected through alternative routes due to these closures.

Shahrah-e-Faisal, one of the main arteries of the city, was fully opened to traffic later in the evening after the protest at the Natha Khan Bridge concluded. The protest at Malir 15 also ended, with participants gathered on the roadside.

Both sides of track were accessible to vehicles.

But both roads in front of Abbas Town on Abu al-Hasan Isfahani Road remained closed.