LAHORE: The Lahore Marathon-2019 arranged on the Pakistan Resolution Day on Saturday in Gulberg not only attracted much smaller audience, particularly families, but also suffered on account of mismanagement by the organisers.

The unnecessary closure of too many roads - 42 arteries - of the posh locality of Gulberg and adjoining areas as security purpose brought a great amount of discomfort for motorists and local residents.

The district government had taken initiative to hold Lahore Marathon on the Pakistan Resolution Day in Gulberg.

According to the plan, the Marathon invited citizens of all ages and gender to #RunForPeace, symbolising a communal petition of peace and harmony globally.

Interestingly, the organisers finalized 10-kilometer route for the participants of the Marathon race even knowing the fact that they were common citizens and not the professional athletes.

Consequently, only 50 to 60 citizens took part in the race while the organisers were expecting more than 500 or so.

Of the total, the official said, half of them even could not cover two-kilometer distance.

The race started from Qadafi Stadium and participants were to run through route Main Boulevard Gulberg and to take u-turn from Siddique Trade Centre to reach to the starting point from Kalma Chowk.

For the purpose, the official said, the police department deployed over 1,600 armed personnel in the morning on Saturday while the event was to start at 2:30pm.

Besides, 11 deputy superintendent of police, and 13 police inspectors were also assigned security responsibility engaging over 50 police vehicles for patrolling.

The traffic police arrangements were in addition to that made by the city police.

The extraordinary security features brought discomfort for the citizens when several roads leading to the main route of the marathon race were blocked two hours before and after the closing of event.

These roads included Main Boulevard Gulberg, a part of Ferozpur Road, Noor Jehan Road, Ghalib Road, Sir Syed Road and a major belt of Jail Road.

Similarly, some important business points, markets, crossings and localities were also closed.

Like, no traffic was allowed from Hussain Chowk to Liberty and Jail Road to Siddique Trade Centre.The official said that these massive security arrangements and heavy police deployment were not less than those for international cricket matches which burdened huge expenses on the national exchequer for just a local and small-scale event – Lahore Marathon-2019.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2019