LAHORE: The city will celebrate its historic cultural festival of Basant after a hiatus of about 10 years in the second week of February as the Punjab government on Tuesday “decided in principle” to allow the celebration.

Fayyazul Hassan Chohan, minister for culture and information, announced the decision at a hurriedly called press conference.

“The decision [to celebrate Basant] has been taken in principle but an eight-member committee has also been formed to suggest ways and means to deal with fallout of the great cultural event.”

Metal string-related deaths were reported, which caused the ban in the first place. The committee, which includes officials from the law and the culturel departments, police and district administration has been formed to suggest ways to deal with the flip side of the celebrations and will submit its report within a week.

Panel formed to deal with flip side of Basant celebration

“Chief Minister Usman Buzdar will take the final decision in this regard within a week. The CM will only look at the administrative side of the event and how to deal with the down side of the Basant as suggested by the committee.”

“After all, the festival generates billions of rupee business every year and provides employment to thousands of people. Banning it was tantamount to snatching employment, which no government can, and should do,” the minister said.

It may be mentioned that the festival was banned in 2007 in Lahore following a surge in deaths caused by metal string, used by kite flyers. The Punjab government allowed celebration temporarily in 2008 and 2009 before disallowing it in 2010. The district Kite Flyers Association also challenged the decision in the Lahore High Court, citing the Punjab Prohibition of Kite Flying (Amendment) Act 2009, which allows a specific period of 15 days for Basant celebrations.

The court allowed it within the parameters of law, but the provincial government persisted with the ban, citing human cost of the celebrations. The minister took a jibe at PML-N’s Senator Mushahidullah Khan, who, according to Chohan, had alleged that the PTI government allowed cutting of thousands of trees in Khyber Pakhtunkawa.

“The billion tree project received international acclaim. The province has been painted green because of millions of tree. Only a naïve like the senator could make a claim like this. One can only regret such naivety or propaganda,” the minister said.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2018