A protest against prolonged power outages near Karachi’s Gharibabad area led to a severe traffic jam on Tuesday, causing immense hardship for commuters as vehicles ran out of fuel and traffic remained at a standstill for hours.

According to details, residents of Gharibabad continued their protest against the unavailability of electricity and blocked one lane of the road from Hasan Square to Liaquatabad.

The demonstration triggered a massive traffic bottleneck on the road from Civic Centre towards Gharibabad, leaving thousands of commuters stranded. Several vehicles reportedly ran out of fuel during the prolonged gridlock, while police were nowhere to be seen to manage the situation.

Traffic police later said they were redirecting vehicles from the Hasan Square bridge towards University Road and NIPA to ease congestion.