LAHORE, April 5: The Punjab police and the City District Government of Lahore on Wednesday submitted two separate reports before Justice Mian Mohammad Najamuz Zaman of the Lahore High Court giving the details of steps they had taken against the violators of the ban on kite-flying and related trade.

The reports were submitted in the proceedings of a writ petition through which advocate Mohammad Azhar Siddiqui had challenged the vires of the Prohibition of Kite Flying Ordinance, 2006, and also sought the registration of cases against the inspector-general of the Punjab police, DIG (Operations), the district nazim and town nazims for the death of the people caused by razor-sharp twine.

The lawyer-petitioner submitted that the reports were not relevant in the light of the contentions of the writ petition which requested the court to strike down the provisions of the ordinance which were inconsistent with the ban. He stated that the relaxation of the ban for a certain period could not be allowed because such a provision gave legitimacy to an otherwise illegal activity.

In its report, the CDGL stated that it had sent 2,090 cases for trial to courts of competent jurisdiction and another 1,064 cases were under investigation since the ordinance was promulgated.

It stated that 2,254 cases were registered, and 2,620 of the violators were arrested between Oct 10, 2005 and April 3, 2006. More than 3,000 rolls of twine and 5,467 kites were seized during the same period.

As for the Punjab government report, it stated that 2,972 persons were found involved in 2,240 cases and 2,893 of them were arrested from across the province till April 3. It also submitted that 312,258 kites, 31,897 twine rolls, 15 kilograms of chemical used for string-making, 19 rolls of metallic wire and manufacturing machinery worth Rs17,05,000, in addition to currency notes valuing Rs90,000, put on stake in kite-flying contests, were also recovered between Oct 25, 2005 and April 3, 2006 to implementing the ban.