KARACHI: Two rallies, one on bicycles, and the other a motorcycle and exotic cars drive, along the roads of the city were some of the highlights of the Independence Day celebrations early on Sunday.

The parking lot of Bar BQ Tonight at 6am was filled by cyclists in green along with their bicycles. There were men, women and children all ready to pedal their way to the Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum as an act of solidarity and patriotism on the 69th anniversary of the day Pakistan was born.

Nine-year-old Subhan Nafees came with his father, Noman Nafees. “My father has been with Chain Reaction, our biking club, since it was formed three years ago and I joined them two years ago,” the young boy said.

Shahnaz Wasim and Sidra Khalid of Critical Mass Karachi said that they weren’t very regular bikers but they woke up early specially for Aug 14.

Present were housewives, elderly people, doctors, pharmacists, engineers, IT specialists, teachers, etc, people from all walks of life pedaling their way through light traffic in the early morning as they joked, laughed, and stopped to take selfies, before being off on their way again.

Somewhere near Teen Talwar at Clifton, a few trail-bikers, doing their own little celebration, overtook the cyclists as they made tired pedaling movements with their legs, making fun of the cyclists; not that it made much of a difference to them as they went past the ‘Unity, faith and discipline’ message on the landmark.

“The only requirement for the Independence Day Parade Ride is a commitment to ride the entire route and stay with the group,” said Shoaib Nizami of Bikestan.

There were no prizes for coming first, second or third other than a sense of accomplishment as all moved together from Clifton to Saddar, all the way to Sharea Faisal and then from Sindhi Muslim Society to Shahrah-i-Quaideen. But close to their destination all were stopped by the police barricades put up for VIP movement during the change of guard ceremony at the Quaid’s mausoleum. That’s when everyone chanted slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ followed by cheering and clapping to appreciate each other’s accomplishment before turning to go back.

“It is sad that we were not allowed to reach the mausoleum,” said Aysha Jawaid of Critical Mass. “We pay our taxes, we have a right to be here, too,” she said quietly, before heading back.

The other rally started a couple of hours after that from Khayaban-i-Ittehad in Defence Housing Authority where around 20 exquisite cars, including classic cars, and 100 motorbikes also started their Freedom Drive to the mausoleum with several brief stops on the way.

President of the Motor Club of Pakistan, Razi Nayyer, leading the way in his dark green Jaguar XJ6 Series 1 1972, which was once owned by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, said that this was their first Freedom Drive although they have also driven together from Karachi to Istanbul. “We formed our club with an aim to promote Pakistan’s safe and positive image for the world,” he said.

“The Freedom Drive was planned to revive and raise the level of patriotism among Pakistanis.”

Nayyer said that they also have a Facebook page with a 4,000 people following and 1.6 million likes. “Some 400 of our followers are foreigners learning about our healthy activities through the page. It is also bringing them here to Pakistan for visits,” he said.

One of the first stops made during the drive was at the Junagarh House on Fatima Jinnah Road where HH Nawab Muhammad Jahangir Khanji greeted the drivers and bikers. “On this day specially, we wanted to acknowledge the sacrifice of Nawab Mohabbat Khan who signed for accession to Pakistan in 1947 out of his love for this country only to lose his state as a result of the action, for which his grandson is still fighting and the matter is pending in the United Nations,” he said.

Among the bikers with heavy machines was also Mohammad Iqbal Changla riding his 660CC Yamaha Tenere, who had come to feature in the drive all the way from Multan. “My friend Bilal Hussain on his 150CC Suzuki joined me from Faisalabad and Syed Amjad from Sukkur on his 125CC Yamaha made us a power of three when we reached there,” he said.

“I have also made several solo journeys, with the longest nonstop travel, of 27 hours, from Quetta to Naran, Lake Saiful Malook, Gilgit and Rawalpindi.”

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2016