Stalls of national flags spring up

LAHORE

Lahorites are getting themselves prepared to celebrate Independence Day with traditional zeal, which could be seen on city roads in the form of makeshift stalls selling national flags, buntings and other such items. 

Every year the roadside stalls selling items related to Independence Day and its celebrations emerged on the city roads with the start of August and continued till August 14. Ironically, the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) didn’t consider these stalls encroachments though they cause severe hindrance in traffic flow. 

Most of these stalls are established near commercial centres, important crossings and busy roads, especially in residential localities so that citizens can stop and buy flags and other items. Recently, the CDGL has decided to establish similar kind of stalls in various city localities from where free flags will be distributed among the citizens.

Sale of these items will gain momentum in the second week of August, said Bashir, who was selling National flags in Johar Town. He said a small flag is being sold at Rs 150 while rate of different flags increased with their size. 

“A number of youths preferred wearing green and white clothes. So, I am selling T-shirts similar to national flags,” said Rizwan, another roadside vendor said. He said he is having advance booking for national flags as many of his young customers wanted to wrap national flags on their bikes on Independence Day. 

Metallic badges with pictures of prominent personalities, especially Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Chief Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, former Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Ch, Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, Dr Qadeer Khan, etc were also on sale on these stalls. Many stalls are also selling pressure horns as well as different types of whistles to be used by youngsters while joy riding on Independence Day. Many stall owners are also secretly selling fireworks, firecrackers and match crackers to their trusted customers.

On the other hand, business community, especially multinational companies, are organising various colorful shows and activities to celebrate I-Day and millions of rupees are being spent on huge advertisements of various products with the Independence Day themes. Many companies also announced special schemes to attract more customers especially the cellular phone service providers.

Shahid, a senior citizen, said: “It was good to celebrate Independence Day with festivity but we should learn to respect the national flag and avoid throwing flags and buntings on ground after August 14, 2016”.