RAWALPINDI: A day after a child was killed when a kite string cut his throat, Punjab senior minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said the crackdown on the kite and string makers and dealers would be intensified.

A ban on such businesses has already been imposed in the province, he added.

The minister visited the residence of Talha, 13, in Mohallah Saidpuri Gate, Banni, on Saturday and expressed grief over the incident which took place at Murree Road in front of the shrine of Talian Shahan.

The minister said all those involved in the manufacturing and sale of threading materials used in kite flying would not be spared. He said an inquiry had also been ordered into the incident.

Ex-MNAs Malik Shakeel Awan, Haji Pervaiz Khan, MPA Raja Mohammad Hanif Advocate, PML-N office-bearers Sardar Mohammad Naseem, Mirza Mansoor Baig, Yasir Butt and Malik Aqeel Shaukat were also present on the occasion.

However, opposition parties termed the announcement mere rhetoric.

“Actions speaks louder than words. The commissioner Rawalpindi division, the city police officer and the district coordination officer should be suspended for their negligence and failure to implement the ban for the last five years,” PTI leader Zahid Kazmi told Dawn.

He said SHOs and the local administration officers could not launch crackdowns on the violators of the ban. Had a crackdown been launched properly, all the dealers would have been arrested for selling kites and strings.

He said his party would raise the issue in the Punjab Assembly. “But such inquires never complete and are used by the government only to befool the citizens,” he said.

Jamaat-i-Islami spokesman Malik Azam said the incident occurred because the local administration failed to stop the manufacturing and sale of kites and strings. The commissioner and DCO failed to establish the writ of the government in the district and always present fake reports to the authorities, he said.

PPP spokesman Shujaat Haider Naqvi said the local police and administration took action only against political workers and failed to streamline things. “The elected members should be given the powers to run the city affairs as bureaucracy has failed to put things in order.”

He said the statement of the PML-N leaders to speed up the crackdown was a joke.

“The local administration and police have become servants of the ruling PML-N and spend most of their time highlighting Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s programmes,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2016