The National Highways & Motorway Police (NH&MP) on Monday said the M-1 Motorway between Islamabad and Peshawar has been reopened to all types of traffic in both directions. M-1, sections of M-14 (Islamabad-Dera Ismail Khan Motorway) and the GT Road (N-5) were closed to traffic last week for an indefinite period amid government pushback ahead of PTI’s long march towards Islamabad — initially scheduled for September 27, but later postponed to October 4.

According to a Motorway Police spokesperson, restoration work remained underway on the M-14 motorway between Hakla and Kundal and on the loop connecting the M-1 motorway with the Hazara Motorway. Traffic travelling from Islamabad to Abbottabad via the M-1 can exit at Burhan Interchange, use the GT Road via Hasan Abdal and rejoin the Hazara Expressway at Jhuri Kas Interchange, the spokesperson said. The N-5, or GT Road, between Islamabad and Peshawar has also been reopened to all traffic, the spokesperson said.

In a statement issued later, the spokesperson said M-14 had been reopened from Hakla to Kot Belian and from Isa Khel to Yarik. Meanwhile, restoration work on the section between Kot Belian and Isa Khel was still under way, the spokesperson added. In its Sept 22 directives, the motorway police announced that the M-1 was closed to all traffic in both directions between the Islamabad Toll Plaza and Chhachh Interchange, while the M-14 was closed between Hakla and Kundal. The GT Road was also closed at Attock Khurd.

Security arrangements were also intensified in Attock, with containers and sandbags placed at key bridges and security tightened at major entry and exit points as authorities prepared for the PTI protest. However, on Sept 25, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said PTI’s long march towards Islamabad would now commence from Peshawar on Oct 4.

The party was set to hold a nationwide protest and march towards Islamabad to press for the release of its founder, Imran Khan, who is currently incarcerated in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail. Ahead of the protest, the Punjab government imposed a ban on gatherings across the province for 13 days and prohibited inciting people to “unlawful assembly”. A similar ban under Section 144 has been enforced in Islamabad for two months.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)