ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Punjab police to register and take affidavits from the manufacturers of strings for kite flying in the province that they would not produce metallic and other dangerous strings which play havoc with human lives and power lines during Basant festivities.

A three-member bench of the court comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice M. Javed Buttar and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed issued the directive to the Inspector-General of Police, Ziaul Hassan, to complete the registration and affidavit process within 15 days.

The bench, hearing a suo motu notice on the use of metallic wires in kite flying, also asked Advocate General Punjab Aftab Iqbal Chaudhry to convey the concern of the court to the chief minister that he should consider compensating the families of those who died from cuts caused by kite strings.

Aftab Iqbal informed the court about measures being taken by the provincial government to discourage the use of metallic or dangerous strings for kite flying.

The court also directed the district coordination officers (DCOs) in the province to submit a report on measures being taken by them to implement laws discouraging dangerous kite flying.

Deputy Advocate General Raja Irshad presented newspaper reports before the court about deaths caused by kite strings and said kite flying should be banned completely.

The bench also asked the lawyers’ community and the bar associations to assist the court voluntarily in this issue.

Senior Advocate Akram Sheikh and ex-governor Punjab Shahid Hamid, who were present in the court, assured the court that they would assist the court.

Akram Sheikh said he would not be able to attend the next hearing as he was proceeding for Umra, but would file a concise statement in this regard. The court then decided to take up the matter again in Lahore on October 25.

The National Assembly was recently informed that Wapda lost Rs30.2 million in revenues due to Basant-related mishaps in the Punjab from 1999 to February 2004.

In addition, Wapda also suffered a loss of Rs200 million due to damage to power transformers and allied equipment.