LAHORE, Dec 15: With the general election just three weeks or so away, most painters and printers in Lahore are still waiting for orders for banners, hoardings, posters, handbills, leaflets, pamphlets, voters’ slips and stickers.

The prices of inputs like papers and ink have also considerably gone up and these traders are not expecting much profit this time.

However, for the people in the Flex banners and hoardings business, the situation is not so gloomy.

A number of painters in Royal Park, Ferozpur Road and Bhati Gate areas told Dawn they were preparing banners for the collection of sacrificial animals’ hides, Eid greetings, eateries announcement for roast facilities etc.

Printers at Hospital Road, Urdu Bazaar, Aibak Road and Royal Park told this reporter on Saturday they had yet to receive big orders.

“In mid-November 2002, we had no time to go home and now we put the shutters down soon after sunset,” said Quddus who runs a printing shop at the Hospital Road.

Zahid of Aibak Road said what margin of profit would be left if at all he received big orders given the ever increasing prices of papers and ink.

“A ream of 72 gram paper was available in the market for Rs1,200 on Thursday, but today it’s price is Rs1,450. Similarly, the prices of ink have also gone up, ranging between Rs150 and Rs250 per pack, within the last two days,” Zahid added.

A ream contains 500 sheets of papers measuring 20X30 inches and some 1,000 posters of 18X23 inches size, requiring four 200 gram packs of ink.

Unannounced power cuts have become the major obstacle to the timely delivery of banners and hoardings, Flex printers at Gulshan-i-Ravi, Bahawalpur Road, Shahdara, Ferozpur Road and Township said and added the orders would start pouring in from Monday when the process of withdrawal of nomination papers and election symbol allotment would complete.