Islamabad - Residents of Banigala, a village turned posh neighbourhood of the capital, said that Imran Khan isn’t a good neighbour as hogging traffic jams on already crowded narrow streets of the suburb have become a headache for the locals due to his ill-planned political activities.
The neighbours were furious when Khan held a press conference on the busy Korang road, the other day.
“The road has been blocked for last one hour and we cannot move,” said Irshad, a resident.
PTI chief Imran Khan usually hold press conference at his office next to his residence, located atop the hill - or at his party office.
It was the first time that Khan chose the lawn of an office, belonging to one of his party worker, Khalid Usman, on the footsteps of his residence, at Korang road. There are two major road connecting Banigala to Islamabad. Korang road is one of the busiest roads, used by thousands of residents.
Media started reaching the venue at around 4:30pm and started aligning their equipments.
DSNG vans were parked on both sides of the 60-feet wide road, while cars of journalists occupied the nearby empty space.
Dozens of SUVs struggled to get parking near the venue.
PTI workers haphazardly parked their cars on the road, blocking the already crawling traffic.
This place is a mess since Khan made his house here because roads are closed all the time, said Inayat another neighbour. The situation got worse when the press conference ended. Everyone was in a hurry, this rush ended up in two accidents.
One media van hit a passenger car while in another incident two passenger cars collided with each other. Roads blockade due to Khan’s political activities is order of the day here, Khan should realise that his neighbours should be benefited not suffer due to his presence.
There was also exchange of hot words between guests of the press conference and residents living in the neighbourhood.
Most of the offices close at 5pm and it is the time when workers come home and after a hectic day one has to spend hours in a gridlock because a politician is holding a press conference, it is very selfish, said Syed Sagheer Ahmed, another resident.
When asked Khan replied, the venue has been selected for convenience of journalists. He said he would look into the matter.
The streets of the area remained jam during his sit-ins and whenever he calls for any political activity in the city, as his house is the starting point of most of his political campaigns.