Why did the Pakistani Punjab province imposed a complete ban on the flights of kites? | Arts and Culture

Penneling Punjab’s most populated province in Pakistan has imposed a complete ban on flights before the Basant Festival centuries ago-which represents the arrival of spring-due to public safety concerns.

The legal amendments approved by the regional association impose heavier fines and conditions for a longer prison on the violators who were previously in effect, in disappointment in front of the celebrities who fly the kites as part of an old tradition to welcome Spring-celebration of joy, color and beauty of nature.

The authorities defended the latest procedure, saying that the use of metal and glass chains causes injuries and even deaths, making kites a threat to public safety.

However, critics say that the embargo is unfair and ignoring a popular cultural festival that people of all religions celebrate in South Asia. Some experts suggested that the authorities could have organized the use of dangerous tendons instead of an explicit ban, which affected the livelihoods of thousands of kites.

So, why did the authorities take such difficult measures and will they prevent people from kites flying?

What is the new law that imposes a fully ban on kinfield in Punjab?

The Punjab Association officially approved last month the Punjabi ban law of the Air Force Law (Amendment), 2024, which introduced the terms of the enhanced prison and heavy fines for kites, manufacturers, carriers and sellers.

The law represents an amendment to the prohibition of the KITE Airlines, 2007 and make kites inappropriate.

Under the previous law, individuals may face kites of up to three years in prison or are fined up to 100,000 rupees ($ 360), or both. Now, they may face up to five years in prison or a rupee fine ($ 7200), or both. If the fine is not paid, an additional year of prison can be added.

Paper makers and transporting them between five to seven years in prison or a fine ranging from 500,000 (1800 dollars) to five million rupees ($ 18,000), along with two additional years of prison when failing to pay the fine. The previous law targeted the manufacture, sale and trade of kites, but not the transportation of kites and dangerous kites chains.

The law prohibits the transfer of “kites, metal wires, nylon wire, or any other thread coated with sharp manga (coated with glass) or any other harmful substance for the purpose of flying kites.”

The new law also includes specific penalties for minors. The first crime by a minor will lead to a warning, and the second crime in a fine of 50,000 rupees ($ 180). A third crime will attract a fine of 100,000 Romma ($ 360), while the fourth crime will lead to prison under the 2018 juvenile regime law, according to Punjab Police on the Internet.

Previous laws allowed birds kites with permission from the authorities on certain occasions and tried to regulate the manufacture, sale and circulation of kites with less penalties on violators.

Mujtaba Shouja-Ur Readran, legislator of the ruling Islamic League, said that there is a need for tougher sanctions, which will be applied throughout the province, to save the lives of innocent people.

I entered the latest measures in effect in front of the Basant Festival, which was celebrated on the fifth day of the lunar month of Majha. The Spring Festival started this year on February 2, but the kite clubs pledged to challenge the ban.

Have Punjab issued restrictions on a kite flying before?

Yes. The government in Punjab province has issued a series of executive orders and a ban to try to take strict measures on flights since the early first decade of the twentieth century, including the emergency law issued in 2001.

In 2005, the Pakistan Supreme Court directed the Punjab government to organize manufacturing, trade, or even flying from kites in response to the protests against dozens of injuries and deaths caused by each year through glass chains, metal coated or nylon.

The provincial capital in Punjab also imposed a ban on kites in 2005 to address what the Supreme Court said was a “threat.”

What are the other measures that the authorities have taken to inhibit the kite flying?

Over the years, judicial, judicial and legislative measures have failed to prevent flying kites.

The authorities also drank religious leaders to drive home the point that the aircraft aircraft is dangerous. Religious scholars, in consultation with the Lahore Fatidah Police or an Islamic decree, announced, declaring a kite flying non -Islamic.

One wheels were announced on a motorcycle and air shooting, which are other common activities during Bastant, non -Islamic celebrations. The judgment was based on the verses of the Qur’an stressing the preservation of human life and the prohibition of actions that it endangers.

Police coordinated the kites manufacturers, as Punjab police confiscated more than 100,000 kites in Lahore-a regional center for making kites-last year.

The authorities also organized awareness campaigns on the dangers of kustuulation.

How dangerous is the paper bird in Punjab?

Paper aircraft competitions, which include participants who try to cut kites to each other using glass wires, coated with minerals or nylon wires, are in intensively crowded neighborhoods in cities throughout Pakistan.

Fierce competition has turned centuries-to-centuries traditions, where some of the leaflets died of buildings from the buildings, while the sharp-strings-also known as Maanjha-coated with a glass dough caused the death of passers-by or drivers.

In addition, if the chain is coated with minerals, it can reach electricity if it touches the power lines, which may cause electric shock, short circuits or fires. This may take hours to recover in an energy conveyor country. In some areas, energy networks are stopped to prevent short circuits, causing normal activities to be disabled.

What was the response to the ban?

Airlines have been challenged kite flying group, says Rawalpindi Kite Flying Association says they are planning to celebrate Pasant on February 13 and 14.

Sheikh Selim, the former president of the Flight Federation, told Lahore, to BBC URDU that instead of fully banning activity, officials should be more active in taking measures against manufacturers of glass -plated kite chains.

However, Khaled Zafar, who heads a law firm in Lahore, says that the enforcement of this type of organization will require more resources, which the police force lacks and the government may not be ready to invest in it.

The police have also struggled to take strict measures against kites manufacturers, some of them from flexible political ties.

But some media organizations supported the government’s decision. The Tribune newspaper described the measures as a “bold but necessary scale that gives public safety priority to traditions.”

“While the Basant Festival occupies a dear place in our cultural heritage, it is necessary to realize that safety must come first, especially when tragic incidents have distorted the joy of this vibrant celebration in the past,” the newspaper said in its liberation in January. 25.

“The passion and enthusiasm around Pasant are undoubtedly beautiful, but they cannot obey the responsibility that we bear towards the safety of our citizens … Critics argue in the embargo that it violates cultural expression, but the culture must develop to reflect our values, including the utmost importance to human life .

Mirza Evikhar Paige, 85, a Lahore resident, is upset with the ban, saying that “kite aircraft was a sport for us.”

During the day, people were flying the colored kites that decorated the sky, and at night, white kicking like the stars, as the island told, remembering the celebrations.

“People were making special dishes like Buding islands and gathered,” said Paige, who was a thirsty kite during his youth in Lahore, walled.

But the 85 -year -old residing in Lahore said during his time, people only used safe Qatari aircraft, unlike metal or glass -wrapped tendons that pose a threat to public safety today.

What is the economic impact of the ban?

Some analysts indicate the influence of the kites manufacturers and the loss resulting from the livelihoods of thousands of workers.

Modern data about the industry scale is rare, but in 2004, activities related to Bazant were born with an estimated 220 million rupees ($ 790,000) as revenues in Lahore alone, and created business of up to three billion rupees (about 7 million dollars) wide of workers and industries Home.

The kite manufacture industry employs an estimated 1.5 million people across Pakistan.

Most workers in the industry are women, and the ban will not only make them unemployed, but also affect relevant industries such as bamboo, thread, glue and paper, experts say.

“Unfortunately, given that most of the people associated with the trading of kites were poor or home workers, they were unable to raise their voice against anti -sheet air laws,” said Zafar.

What is Basant and where is it celebrated?

Punjab is historically famous for the centuries -old Basant Festival, which celebrates the arrival of agricultural and agricultural products. Basant means spring in Indian and Punjabi languages.

The Punjab region, which wanders in India and Pakistan, is famous for its fertile land and its vibrant culture – and the height of colored kites in the sky is a reflection of that.

Lahore and Kasur in Pakistani Punjab, and Emretsar across the border in Punjab in India were some of the main cities where it was traditionally celebrated centuries ago.

Reda Ahmed Rumi, director of the Park Center for Independent Media Center at Ethaka College, says that restrictions on kite aircraft-the Axis of the Basant Festival-is a cultural erasure.

The festival not only became a “cultural sign” in the city’s scene (Lahore), but it was also a comprehensive event that combined the wealthy and the poor, as well as societies and age groups, which makes it a continuation of the pluralistic Lahore’s and said to culture, “referring to the mixed population composition in the city (Sikh Hindus and Muslims) before the division of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.

He said: “(The ban) by the government, and after that the court was a great rupture, I would like to say, in the cultural values ​​between India and Pakistan, especially on both sides of the Punjab region.”