KARACHI: As general elections are just 12 days away, the flag makers on Saturday hoped slight improvement in orders for flags by the political parties in Karachi, but it could not match the volume achieved in 2008 elections.

A leading flag maker hoped the sale of all types of political parties’ flags in Karachi may touch 2.0-2.5 million as compared to 1.0-1.2 million estimated early this month as orders were still pouring in.

One can gauge the total sale volume based on wholesale price of flags of different sizes ranging between Rs10-100.

The flags of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the largest political party in the city, still appear to be low in numbers, but the flag maker said that some fresh orders had been placed by the party, which also has its own arrangements for flag production.

Shaikh Nisar Ahmed Parchamwala, owner of VIP Flags, told Dawn he could not give the exact number of flags sold in last elections in Karachi but this year the numbers were definitely very low.

He said he had received huge orders from various political parties and their candidates from interior Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. He claimed to have hold 80-90 per cent market share in Karachi in flags manufacturing.

“My company’s eyes sale of over 10 million flags this elections and has produced around eight million flags so far,” he said, adding he had received more than 50 per cent orders from upcountry contestants.

He said Jamaat-e-Islami has already given its orders two months back and so far procured around 100,000 flags of different sizes for Karachi alone. Orders from the PPP were in the range of 1.5-2.0 million including Karachi and interior Sindh, he added.

He said some sector-wise orders are coming from the MQM but said he had not received any order from ANP in Karachi.

However, PML-F had given orders for more than 300,000 flags.

Nisar said he had made 70,000-80,000 caps so far and hopefully sale of caps is estimated 250,000-300,000 in Karachi alone as compared to earlier estimate of Rs150,000-200,000.

In a query over cancellation of orders in view of law and order situation in Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar mainly, he said he had not received any cancellation of orders for flags and caps so far. Even the political party or their candidates were not hesitating in taking delivery of extra flags and caps from their original orders.

“Karachi has so far failed to portray an environment of elections due to poor security situation as compared to boiling campaigns especially in Punjab, he remarked.