Daily Times

Basant is a renowned festival of the subcontinent, with its roots being immersed in history and among legends. Basant has always been celebrated in Punjab before its ban to welcome the spring season and to bid adieu to the winter season. It has always been a really vibrant and a colourful festival of Punjab, which has strongly captivated the hearts of lively Lahoris. The festival of Basant was officially banned by the Supreme Court in 2005 considering its severe perils. In 2007, Mian Amir Mehmood withdrew the ban on Basant for two days, which resulted in casualties due to the usage of metal and glass twine.

A recent decision of Punjab government to restore the festival of Basant is indeed a menace considering the below mentioned hazards of this activity and is inevitably required to challenge this decision and revert it.

It is also indeed disillusioning to see the hazards associated with the festival of Basant; the first and foremost being the use of the metal and glass twine and strings, which is tantamount to a lethal weapon. It is deadly to an extent that it cuts away the throat once it touches the neck and it is as sharp as a razor. The most vulnerable victims to this deadly twine are the pedestrians and the bike riders. The twine made from metal is extremely hazardous to an extent that when it strikes the naked wires, it results in electrocution for any person touching the wires.

Alarmingly, the electricity wires in our country are profusely widespread, and no sound efforts are made to organize them. Many times, they are seen drooping down in the streets, and any collision of the metal or glass twine with these wires results in severe electrocution for a person on whom the kite or twine falls down. Children usually become a sad victim of the metal or glass twine when they run after the stray kite on the streets. This portrays the grave risk attached with the kite flying in Punjab.

In addition, the festival of Basant adds to several accidents as fanatic kite flyers are reported to collapse down from their rooftops while flying kites or catching the stray kites. In many cases, conflicts have arisen amongst neighbours in an attempt to catch the stray kite as well as in an effort to cut each other twine and kite in the air with his own. Hence, it implies that this festival, which once used to be a source of promoting joy, brotherhood and jubilance has become a threat to the sanctity, life and honour of individuals.

Another looming risk associated with Basant is the rampant aerial firing and the use of the illegally held weapons. The increasing profanity seen on the event of Basant in terms of teenage and adult girls and boys openly mixing up, dancing and engaging in various vulgar activities deemed un-Islamic is another common vice. Such activities on Basant are nothing less than an evil, and should be discouraged by banning the festival of Basant.

Recently, I have filed a petition through an eminent constitutional lawyer named Sheraz Zaka before the Lahore High Court in which the Punjab government’s decision to restore Basant festival in Punjab has been challenged. Therefore, it is requested to the honourable courts not to adopt doctrine of exceptionalism, which justifies departure from human rights enforcement. The aforementioned vices inflicting Basant festival calls to place an immediate ban on it.

The writer can be reached at aiyza.javaid@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, January 11^th 2019.