Second case against Basant reaches LHC while earlier petition awaits decision

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has been approached against the permission granted for celebrating Basant after the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Lahore issued a notification allowing kite-flying activities on February 6, 7 and 8.

A miscellaneous petition was filed by Advocate Azhar Siddique, challenging the DC’s notification and seeking its withdrawal. The petition argues that the decision to allow Basant poses serious risks to public safety, citing recent incidents in which a young man and a girl were critically injured due to kite flying.

The petitioner maintained that kite flying has previously resulted in the loss of precious lives and that allowing the activity again could lead to similar tragedies. The plea requested the court to suspend the DC’s notification until a final decision is reached on the main petition, warning that immediate intervention is necessary to prevent potential harm.

The petition comes amid a broader legal challenge already pending before the LHC against the Punjab government’s move to revive Basant through a newly promulgated ordinance – its first attempt to restore the festival in nearly two decades. That petition, filed by the Judicial Activism Panel (JAP) through Advocate Azhar Siddique, argues that the ordinance reopens the door to what it describes as a “dangerous sport” that has historically claimed multiple lives.

The earlier plea also questioned the constitutionality of issuing the ordinance while the Punjab Assembly was in session, calling it an unnecessary and unlawful use of Article 128 of the Constitution. It recalled past fatal incidents across Punjab and referenced last year’s meeting between PML-N President Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, and the family of a Faisalabad man killed by a kite string—an incident after which the chief minister had termed kite flying a “bloody sport.”

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has defended the revival of Basant. Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari stated that the festival would be held as a fully regulated and closely supervised cultural event, with strict measures in place to ensure public safety. She said the production and sale of metallic and chemically treated kite strings had been eliminated, warning that violations would result in three to five years’ imprisonment and fines of up to Rs2 million.

Under the new ordinance, all kite and string manufacturers and sellers must be registered, and each roll of string will carry a QR-coded identifier to ensure traceability. Basant has remained banned since 2007 following a series of deadly incidents, particularly involving children and motorcyclists injured by hazardous kite strings.

The LHC is expected to take up the petitions for hearing in the coming days. Experts says that depending on the details of the petitions, the court might also decide to club them both together for proceedings.