Scuffle breaks out as PMLN ‘inaugurates’ Karachi Green Line project

KARACHI:-Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz leaders Ahsan Iqbal, Mohammed Zubair, and Miftah Ismail have held a news conference to condemn the alleged heavy-handedness of security personnel who tried to stop them from the symbolic inauguration of the Green Line bus rapid transit (BRT) project in Karachi.

Prime Minister Imran Khan is scheduled to inaugurate the trial operations of the project on Friday, December 1, before the start of commercial operations on December 25. However, Ahsan Iqbal, Mohammed Zubair, and Miftah Ismail, accompanied by several dozen party workers arrived at the the BRT station in Nazimabad No. 7 to “inagurated” the project on Thursday.

A scuffle broke out when police and Rangers stopped them from getting on the bridge leading to the station and Ahsan Iqbal was hit by a baton while Zubair was also manhandled, SAMAA TV reported.

The TV broadcast visuals showing a melee of PMLN activists who carried party flags.

Addressing the news conference Zubair said they only wanted to cut a ribbon to inaugurate the project that was launched during the PMLN government and they were successful in doing that.

He said they never intended to get on the BRT track and were planning to cut the ribbon “on the footpath just a few steps ahead” of where the scuffle broke out.

Ahsan Iqbal said the Green Line project had been largely completed when the PMLN completed its term in 2018 and only the procurement of buses was pending.

He said the government is using Rangers for policing purposes.

Ahsan said the govrnment was using armed security personnel against unarmed political workers but it appears helpless in face of groups that challenged the state writ.

“I am happy that my blood has been used for the Green Line project,” Ahsan said.

He said security personnel had also hit one of the women workers of the PMLN.

Miftah said the PMLN government completed BRT projects at much lower costs in Lahore, Islamabad and Multan compared to the expenses incurred on Peshawar BRT.