Daily Times

LAHORE: Paying rich tribute to the unending love of mothers, Lahoris celebrated Mother’s Day on Sunday.

Several ceremonies were organised, special discount were offered by clothing brands and different bakeries sold special cakes across the city to mark the occasion.

Lahore Avari Hotel organised a cake cutting ceremony in which Avari General Manager Grant Raubenheime, PR Executive Noor Khan, officials and a number of peoples were present. A special brunch was also arranged on the occasion. Talking to Daily Times, Grant said that organising the ceremony was a small effort to honour the value of mothers and their unprecedented services.

Nestlé Nido also organised a colorful event to celebrate the Mother’s Day in a local hotel. In the event, a large number of families along with children participated from across the city. Nestlé Managing Director Bruno Olierhoek, Nestlé Marketing Manager Shazil Khan, TV actress Jugan Kazim and other officials of Nestlé were also present on the occasion.

They arranged several activities to attract and guide children and their mothers on healthcare besides distributing gift hampers among the families. On the occasion, nutritionists were observed focusing on the parents’ role in the better nutrition of their child and how they can play a part in physical and intellectual growth of children by using different products of food. Children expressed gratitude for the unconditional love of their mothers.

On the occasion, Bruno Olierhoek told Daily Times that a mother’s job is not easy and she has remain active all the time to look after her baby, adding that on this day, everyone should thank their mothers, as it is the only relation that is free of greed. He said that Nestlé always tried to build bridges between children and mothers through their products.

Nestle Marketing Manager Shazil Khan said most of the mothers did not know which food is best for their children, adding that for this purpose Nestlé has taken on board nutritionists who are guiding the mothers on their baby’s health.

Separately, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman’s advisor Dr Yasmin Rashid said Mother’s Day is being observed all over the world to pay homage to a person, who is the nucleus of a family. However in Pakistan, she laments, a mother is perishing every 20 minutes because of complications during pregnancy.

In a statement issued on Sunday, she regretted that it was a sorry state of affairs that health of a mother had never been the priority of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government. “Although Pakistan was signatory to the Millineum Development Goals (MDGs) and committed that the maternal mortality rate (MMR) would be brought down to 120 mothers dying out of 100,000 deliveries by 2015, the country failed miserably to achieve this goal and is still letting some 200 mothers die among 100,000 live deliveries,” she added.

Overall, she said, around 15,000 mothers were dying according to rough estimates across the country because the government had yet not conducted the census to know about the exact number of population. “The government did not even bother to appoint a regular health minister, which vividly explains the government’s priorities towards mothers’ health,” she added.