Lahorites celebrate I-Day with traditional zeal

LAHORE:Citizens celebrated the Independence Day with traditional zeal and made it festive and noisy as usual here on Wednesday.

The City was decorated with lights, flags and buntings while cars, motorcycles and other vehicles were also decorated with national flags, a large number of citizens came on roads by blowing trampolines, riding motorbikes without silencers and making hooliganism on the roads.

The main flag hoisting ceremony was held at the tomb of Allama Iqbal while flag-hoisting ceremonies were also held at various places including the public and private institutions. The day began with a 21-gun salute in the provincial capital on the occasion of Independence Day. This ceremony was held at army stadium where troops of Pakistan Army gave gun salute. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz visited Mazar-e-Iqbal, laid flowers and offered Fateha. She paid homage to Allama Iqbal and unfurled the flag at the Alamgiri Gate of the Lahore Fort where a troop of Boy Scouts offered a salute.

The other prominent ceremonies were held at Wagah Border, Wapda House, Railway Headquarters, Town Hall and, etc. Exhibitions, folk-music programmes, stage shows and speech competitions were also organised by various organisations.

A rush was observed at almost every public park and entertainment places including cinemas and theatres. Army Museum in Cantonment remained one of the most visited places of the provincial capital while a very large number of citizens also visited the Lahore Zoo where the administration has to arrange special arrangements for the day.

As usual, The Mall was the point of attraction for the I-Day celebrators, especially the youth riding bikes. A number of youth preferred wearing green and white clothes - T-shirts while many were seen joy-riding on bikes with Pakistani flag wrapped around their bodies. Traffic jams were witnessed at many City roads, especially different parts of The Mall and other roads connecting with it, like the Canal Bank Road, and Gymkhana Road, etc. A large number of young motorists were seen doing stunts. The noise generated by the motorcycles had a deafening effect when mixed with the hooting of horns by hundreds of marchers and dancing revelers. A number of people were also seen carrying national flags while many had erected the flags on rickshaws, bikes, cycles, cars, jeeps and etc.

Lakshmi Chowk, Gowalmandi Food Street, Moon Market Allama Iqbal Town, Food Street Anarkali, MM Alam Road, Liberty and Barkat Market were the main points of attraction for the food lovers. Meanwhile, business community, especially the multinational companies, also organised events while the social organisations organised seminars.