LAHORE: Last December, Pakistan’s passionate kite-flyers rejoiced when officials announced that the boisterous spring festival of Basant, banned almost a decade and a half ago, would be celebrated once more this February.
But their excitement was snuffed out last week when the government gave up on plans to organize the springtime celebration, admitting that it needed more time to clampdown on manufacturers who lace string with chemicals and glass that makes its deadly.
Ironically, it is Pakistan’s kite-makers who have lobbied the government not to lift the ban on the kite carnival.
Kite-flying has long been a passion in South Asia and for decades, Basant would transform Pakistan’s skies into a glittery kaleidoscope of hundreds of thousands of kites to commemorate the advent of spring. But in 2005, the Supreme Court banned the celebration after 19 people died from decapitation by stray strings. In that year alone, kites and string worth over Rs.1 billion were sold on Basant day just in the eastern city of Lahore, whose ancient walled enclave is the epicenter of the festival.
Many kite-flyers indulge in kite duels, flying with thick strings or razor-sharp ones reinforced with glass and chemicals so that they can better attack the opponent’s kites and slice their strings. Stray strings have been known to knock out power lines and in some cases tangle around a human neck or limb and cut it.
“The government came to me for recommendations about opening Basant and I told them that first there should be a crackdown against those who are producing the prohibited thread,” Muhammad Siddique Papa, who comes from a long line of famous kite-makers, told Arab News outside what used to be his kite shop in Lahore’s ancient Mochi Darwaza. The store is now a warehouse rented out to local businesses.
“This thread is unbreakable and cuts like a sword,” Papa said. “I had recommended that the government should not allow Basant unless the production of this dangerous thread can be controlled. That has so far proved very difficult.”
Mochi Darwaza used to be a block-long market of tiny kite shops but since 2005, many of the kite sellers have shut down their stores or moved to selling grocery and toys.
Imran Butt, a former kite maker who now owns a grocery store in the walled city, said he had also recommended to the government that the ban on the festival should not be lifted.
“The government cannot ban the killer strings because black sheep of the thread industry will keep producing it,” he said as he poured rice into a bag for a customer. “I would not want Basant to open for the next thousand years because the government can’t control string makers for the next thousand years. They don’t have the capacity.”
Punjab information Minister Fayyaz ul Hasan Chohan admitted that rogue string manufacturers were the problem and said they produced the dangerous string “underground” and were not easy to identify.
“Some incidents of throat-cutting by kite-flying have occurred in different parts of the province in recent weeks and we felt that we need to prepare well to celebrate Basant,” Chohan said. “Preparations require a comprehensive strategy including new legislation and further training of police, which would take months. That’s the reason we have shelved the plan of celebrating Basant this year.”
Last week, the government had announced that it needed at least four to six months to prepare for a “safe Basant” and develop a mechanism to register all kite and string manufacturers.
“Strict action is required against the use of chemical and metallic twine,” Aleem Khan, provincial minister for local government, had said during a press conference.
But thread manufacture Muhammad Munir defended his industry, saying thick thread was made for industrial purposes but some string-makers misused it.
“Most of them import nylon thread from China or develop it at their own small home-based factories,” he said, adding that the government needed to crackdown on manufacturers from the city of Faisalabad, a popular Basant destination, who produced the dangerous thread and supplied it to the rest of the country.
“We have arrested dozens of string producers, sellers and kite-flyers only during the last two months and burnt thousands of spools of the banned string and hundreds of kilograms of confiscated thread,” Rashid Mehmood, a senior police officer in the city of Faisalabad, said.
On Lahore’s famed Lawrence Road, Shahbaz Butt sat at the shop of his late father Pervaiz Ahmad Butt, a legendary kite-flyer who won the 1979 All Pakistan Kite-Flying Tournament at the iconic Minto Park. Every Friday for decades, the city’s kite aficionados would head to the park to see Butt duel his rivals from around the country, knocking their kites down to the ground by slicing through their string.
“After the government stopped kite-flying, my father became a victim of depression and anxiety; his food habits changed and he lived the rest of his life between his home and our store,” Butt’s son said. The sign-board outside the car battery shop is shaped like a kite. “I believe if kite-flying had not been banned,my father would have been alive today.”
Octogenarian Hafeez Butt, who flew kites for 55 years and won several contests, said it took him years to get over the Basant ban.
“Kite-flying is a sport but greedy traders and unprofessional flyers turned it into an ugly hobby,” he lamented. “String-sellers are a mafia and the government cannot do anything against them. They should go after them instead of depriving us. They need to lift this ban.”
But Khawaja Basharat, who used to be the president of the now disbanded Pakistan Kite-Sellers Association, said he was relieved the ban had been extended.
“Criminal elements producing thick and killer thread have given us [kite flyers and makers] a bad name,” he said.
“I welcome the government’s decision of not celebrating Basant until they can eliminate the thread mafia,” he added. “When the government contacted me for help in reviving Basant, I told them, ‘I am no longer in this business’.”
No-Kite-Fly Zone: Pakistan’s kite-makers pushed to have Basant canceled
No-Kite-Fly Zone: Pakistan’s kite-makers pushed to have Basant canceled
- Festival too dangerous until government can crackdown on manufacturers of knife-sharp strings, say kite-makers
- Basant was banned by the Supreme Court in 2005 after stray strings killed 19 people
In tense relations with India, Pakistani TV dramas break down barriers diplomacy often cannot
- Pakistani dramas offer millions of Indians a glimpse into life across border into arch-rival country
- Pakistani dramas offer simplicity, depth of writing and limited episodes, says actor Khalid Anam
KARACHI: Two Pakistani women sit together on a couch, rehearsing their lines while a director scrutinizes them. Waiting off camera for his scene is the male lead, an actor blessed with “Bachelor” hair and fine bone structure.
Also out of sight: the Islamabad homeowners, who are holed up in a separate room and whose furniture and knick-knacks will be seen by millions of viewers — many from the society that has been their country’s neighbor and uneasy sparring partner for much of the past century.
This is the set of the Pakistani drama “Adhi Bewafai,” or “Half Infidelity” — one of what some in other nations would call “soap operas.” But these dramas, it turns out, are not just for Pakistanis.
Realistic settings, natural dialogue and almost workaday plots about families and marriages make Pakistani dramas a hit with viewers at home and abroad — especially in the neighboring country that split with Pakistan in 1947 and is its nuclear archrival today: India.
Television, it seems, is succeeding where diplomacy sometimes can’t.
Several thousand people work in Pakistan’s drama industry; the country produces between 80 to 120 shows a year, each one a source of escapism and intrigue. They offer Indians a tantalizing glimpse into life across the border — and manage to break through decades of enmity between the two governments.
Maheen Shafeeq, a research associate at the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad, says there is effectively no relationship between the two governments.
Each government is fixed on a single issue it cannot move past — for India, it’s “terrorism” for Pakistan, the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The governments are very much opposed to each other,” she says. “They don’t agree what they should talk about.”
Although it’s difficult for Indians to visit Pakistan, where these shows are filmed, they faithfully follow the plot twists and turns through platforms like YouTube, ZEE5, and MX Player.
For those of a certain generation, however, it wasn’t always so easy to keep up.
Kaveri Sharma, a writer in the Indian city of Patna, recalls her mother-in-law and aunt jiggling antennas in the 1980s and 1990s in hopes of catching a signal from Pakistan’s state broadcaster, PTV.
It’s how Sharma first realized that the country next door was a drama powerhouse. It inspired her to discover the shows for herself years later, even going on to watch them with her own daughter.
“They feel familiar, but they are also a break from our own lives,” Sharma says. “I don’t see any differences between the two countries. Everything is relatable. I see Karachi and think that it could be Lucknow or Patna. What happens on the shows could happen to me or my friends.”
She had heard only negative things about Pakistan since childhood — that it was the enemy that would take everything from India. The TV dramas have added subtlety and detail to this image for her. She would love to visit, but is unlikely to get the opportunity.
So she explores Pakistan through the locations, malls, offices, streets and restaurants depicted on the small screen. The names of popular Karachi neighborhoods roll off her tongue.
Sharma, like Bibi Hafeez in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad and Punita Kumar in the central Indian city of Raipur, raves about the dramas’ universality of themes, the strong characterization and the emotional range.
“Pakistani characters are not only heroes or villains. They have shades to them, and that is very human,” says Kumar, who chanced upon a Pakistani drama through a chunky videocassette when she was a teenager living in the northern Indian city of Aligarh. It was love at first watch.
“They captivated me. We got a cable connection that offered PTV. Then YouTube came and I realized I could search for whatever drama I wanted. I haven’t taken a stop,” she said. “We get exposure to Pakistani life in the scenes, but the struggles the characters have with their relatives are ones I would have with my own.”
Pakistani TV veteran Khaled Anam is delighted by Indians’ enthusiasm for the country’s serials and the barriers they help erode.
“What Bollywood is to India, dramas are to Pakistan,” says Anam, who is based in Karachi and has worked as an actor since the 1980s. He has appeared in many dramas, including the ratings smash “Humsafar” (“Life Partner”).
India’s productions go big, while Pakistan’s are more low key
India dominates the movie market in South Asia and beyond, with big stars and bigger budgets. Pakistanis have been exposed to Bollywood films for decades, although the prevailing hostile political climate means they can’t watch them in movie theaters.
The bans are mutual, though. India, like Pakistan, restricts content from across the border in movie theaters and TV channels.
And while India is no slouch when it comes to TV production, it doesn’t offer viewers what Pakistan does, according to Anam: simplicity, depth of writing and a limited number of episodes.
“There are 15-minute flashbacks in Indian serials. (The characters) are decked out and dolled up. It’s a fantasy world. The shows go on forever. Everything is ‘DUN dun dun!’” says Anam, mimicking a dramatic musical riff and shaking his hands.
The actors on the couch in Islamabad are rehearsing lines about a woman who is disrespectful and so, according to one of them, is an unsuitable marriage prospect.
The delivery and grammar could be heard in virtually any South Asian household.
“Pakistanis are generally emotional people, and that is in their dramas also,” says Islamabad-based director Saife Hassan. “It would take me less than two minutes to explain the plot of the super-duper hit ‘Kabhi Main, Kabhi Tum’ (‘Sometimes Me, Sometimes You’). It’s about the emotions between a husband and wife.”
Hassan, who began his TV career in the 1990s, says Indians frequently comment on his social media pages and send him direct messages about his work. He even recalls Indian viewers praying for the recovery of a character who was in a coma.
Hassan would love to see more homegrown dramas make it onto platforms like Netflix, as some Indian shows have with great success. But he wonders whether international audiences would understand and connect with Pakistani stories or lives:
“The way we think is different from the West. Our shows are not driven by events. They are driven by emotions.”
There is also a lack of raunch in Pakistani dramas, which are family-friendly with little to no vulgarity, violence, or even action. Indians, therefore, are a natural audience for Pakistani dramas, Hassan says.
“They are our people. They are like us. They eat like us,” he says. “I love India, and I love Indians. They have grown out of this animosity.”
Pakistan stocks surge by over 1,400 points amid decline in oil prices, policy rate cut hopes
- Benchmark KSE index closes at 113,713 points, surging 1.3 percent more from last close
- Central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee is set to review interest rate on Mar. 10
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) surged by over 1,400 points on Thursday as bulls dominated the trading session, with analysts attributing the rise to a drop in oil prices at the international market and investors’ hopes of a further cut in the policy rate by the central bank.
The benchmark KSE-100 index rose by 1,459.41 points or 1.3 percent to close at 113,713.17 points on Thursday, up from the previous close of 112,253.76.
The development takes place as the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is set to review the interest rate on Mar. 10, with many expecting the bank to slash the interest rate further.
“Stocks closed bullish led by scrips across the board amid speculations ahead of SBP policy announcement on March 10,” Ahsan Mehanti, managing director and CEO of Arif Habib Commodities, told Arab News.
It said investors’ expectations for further ease in the central bank’s policy after treasury bill auction yields remained flat, following a decade-low consumer price index inflation which was recorded at 1.5 percent year-on-year in February.
Prominent Pakistani brokerage house Topline Securities attributed the surge in stocks to a sharp decline in global oil prices.
“This rally was primarily driven by a sharp decline in international oil prices, which plunged to multi-year lows, uplifting investor sentiment,” Topline Securities said in its daily market review.
“Moreover, speculation surrounding high-level meeting on the clearance of the longstanding circular debt further fueled optimism across the board.”
The report highlighted how the benchmark index surged to an intraday high of 1,617 points causing the equity market to witness a robust rebound in today’s session.
It added that a total of 372 million shares changed hands which generated a turnover of Rs26.2 billion with PIBTL dominating the volume charts.
The development takes place as an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team is in the country for the first review of the $7 billion loan program that Islamabad secured last September.
A nine-member mission, led by IMF Mission Chief in Pakistan Nathan Porter, is in the country to assess Pakistan’s economic performance and determine the release of a $1.1 billion tranche from the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) over the next three weeks, secured as part of Islamabad’s economic recovery plan.
Pakistani experts divided over impact of IMF’s ongoing review on cenbank’s interest rate policy
- Pakistani analyst says central bank may maintain policy rate due to IMF’s demand of higher taxes
- Pakistan’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is set to meet on Mar. 10 to review borrowing rate
KARACHI: Financial experts on Thursday remained divided over whether the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) ongoing first review of Pakistan’s $7 billion bailout program will lead to the central bank increasing or decreasing the interest rate next week.
The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is set to meet and review the interest rate on Mar. 10. The development takes place as a delegation of the IMF is reviewing Pakistan’s economic performance in Islamabad under its $7 billion Extended Fund Facility program.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has reduced borrowing rates by a cumulative 1,000 basis points since June 2024 to 12 percent to spur economic growth. Shankar Talreja, director of research at brokerage firm Topline Securities, told Arab News he expected the central bank to maintain the interest rate at 12 percent and not introduce a further cut.
“We expect the central bank to remain prudent and observe the status quo in upcoming meeting,” Talreja told Arab News.
Talreja explained that since Pakistan is facing a revenue shortfall and to achieve the desired tax-to-GDP ratio, the IMF can push the government to impose additional tax measures. These in turn can lead to inflation which would cause the SBP to maintain the interest rate at 12 percent rather than slash it further.
The IMF has expressed concern over Pakistan facing a revenue shortfall of about Rs600 billion in this fiscal year.
The international lender wants cash-strapped Pakistan to increase its revenues by scrapping energy subsidies and imposing taxes on agriculture, real estate and retail sectors.
Talreja said the anticipated tax measures may bring pause to the interest rate easing cycle “for a few months.”
He said certain tax measures were already outlined in the IMF’s detailed report, such as the increase in advance income tax on imports of machinery, withholding tax on supplies and increase in federal excise duty on sugary drinks.
“Any shortfall over and above Rs500 billion will trigger additional tax measures to be taken by the government in its new budget for the financial year 2026,” Talreja explained.
A majority of market participants said they expected a rate cut ranging from 50 basis points to 150 basis points, a survey conducted by Topline Securities said last week.
The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Pakistan’s top trade body, on Wednesday called for a 500-basis-point (bps) cut in the policy rate. The body said businesses remained dissatisfied with monetary policy and demanded a cut due to easing inflation.
Muhammad Waqas Ghani, head of research at JS Global Capital Ltd., disagreed with Talreja. He said the IMF can set a lower tax target for Pakistan, which would not trigger further inflation.
“We believe that the IMF review and the miss in tax collection targets will not impact the SBP’s decision,” Ghani told Arab News.
Pakistan’s macroeconomic indicators have gradually improved since it secured the IMF bailout last summer. The country’s consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate, maintaining a downward trend on Monday, hit a more than 9-year low at 1.51 percent year-on-year in February.
If the IMF approves the first review of the loan, the country is in line to receive about $1 billion as the second installment of the loan package.
Pakistan army chief slams Afghanistan for ‘harboring’ militants after deadly Bannu attack
- Five soldiers, 13 civilians killed on Tuesday in attack on military base in Bannu city in northwestern Pakistan
- Military says attack was orchestrated from neighboring Afghanistan whose Taliban rulers deny allowing militant activity
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan army chief General Syed Asim Munir said on Thursday Afghanistan continued to be a “safe haven” for militants, a day after the military said an attack on a cantonment in the country’s northwest had been planned and orchestrated from the neighboring country.
Suicide bombers drove two vehicles packed with explosives into a military base in Bannu city in an attack staged by more than a dozen militants on Tuesday. The army said five soldiers and 13 civilians had been killed in the assault, which caused a partial collapse of the military compound’s outer wall and damaged nearby infrastructure, including a mosque and residential building.
Pakistan is battling a surge in attacks by its own chapter of the Taliban movement, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), on police and military in areas near the Afghan border. Islamabad says the militants operate from neighboring Afghanistan, whose rulers deny the charge.
“Terrorist groups … continued to operate from Afghan soil against Pakistan,” the military said in a statement, quoting Munir after he visited Bannu on Thursday. “The use of foreign weapons and equipment in recent terrorist attacks was clear evidence that Afghanistan remained a safe haven for such elements.”
The army chief added that “no entity would be allowed to disrupt Pakistan’s peace and stability.”
The Afghan government has not responded to Pakistan’s accusations.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the military said intelligence reports had “unequivocally confirmed the physical involvement of Afghan nationals” in the Bannu attack, adding that evidence proved the attack was orchestrated and directed by insurgents operating from Afghanistan.
“Pakistan expects the Interim Afghan Government to uphold its responsibilities and deny its soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan. Pakistan reserves the right to take necessary measures in response to these threats emanating from across the border,” the military said.
Jaish-e-Fursan Muhammad, a militant faction affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released to media.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban authorities in Kabul of facilitating cross-border militant attacks, a charge Afghan authorities deny.
The TTP was formed in 2007 as an umbrella organization of various hard-line groups operating individually in Pakistan.
The TTP pledges allegiance to, and gets its name from, the Afghan Taliban, but is not directly a part of the group that now rules Afghanistan. Its stated aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, as the Taliban have done in Afghanistan.
The TTP is responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks in Pakistan, including on churches and schools and the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, who survived the 2012 attack after she was targeted for her campaign against the Taliban’s efforts to deny women education.
Militants have targeted Bannu several times in the past also. Last November, a suicide car bomb killed 12 troops and wounded several others at a security post. In July, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle and other militants opened fire near the outer wall of the military facility.
International hockey returns to Pakistan as German junior team arrives in Islamabad
- Pakistan marked first international hockey match played in the country for 7 years when it played series against China in 2011
- Before that, Pakistan had last staged an international match in 2004 when it hosted the Champions Trophy in Lahore
ISLAMABAD: The German Junior Hockey Team, world champions, arrived in Pakistan on Thursday for a four-match series, marking the return of international hockey to Pakistan after nearly a decade and a half, the government’s press department said in a statement.
Pakistan marked the first international hockey match played in the country for seven years when Chinese played four matches here in what was dubbed as the ‘Friendship Series’.
Before that, Pakistan had last staged an international match in 2004 when it hosted the Champions Trophy in Lahore but after that foreign teams refused to play in the country due to security concerns.
Since the September 11 attacks in the United States, foreign teams have been reluctant to travel to Pakistan in many sports and the South Asian country was left completely isolated as a sporting venue after militants attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March 2009.
“Under the vision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, this initiative aims to provide Pakistani junior players with international exposure and reestablish Pakistan as a hub for global hockey,” PID said about the four-math series between Pakistan and Germany.
“The series will feature one match in Islamabad and three in Lahore, promising a thrilling competition for fans.”
The two teams will face each other in Lahore on Mar. 6, 8 and 11 while one match will be played in Islamabad on Mar. 13.
“The series holds great significance for both teams as they prepare for the Hockey Junior World Cup being played 2025 in India,” state media reported.
Field hockey, Pakistan’s national sport, once propelled the country to Olympic gold and global glory, but the game has waned in popularity and participation over the past two decades. Poor management, lack of infrastructure and the rise of cricket has contributed to the decline. The failure to adapt to modern demands, including fitness and artificial turfs, has further deepened the crisis.
According to the latest rankings released by the International Hockey Federation, Pakistan is ranked number 15 in the world in field hockey.
