Hamara Karachi Festival: Shopping, Mehfil-e Ghazal and lots of food

Diners eating at food street restaurants included in the HKF celebrations save up to 10 per cent.

KARACHI:

Diners eating at food street restaurants included in the Hamara Karachi Festival (HKF) celebrations on Sunday were able to save up to 10 per cent. The privilege was offered at restaurants in areas including New Karachi, North Nazimabad near Landi Kotal, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Bahadurabad and Hassan Square.

Bagh-e Rizwan, an open-air restaurant where a mini zoo is already present, set up 15 barbeque stalls that sold biryani, roasted chicken and fast food while other stall owners took the opportunity to sell cosmetics, artificial jewellery and bangles to lure visitors.

A similar sight was prevalent at the food streets in Bahadurabad and Hassan Square, where a variety of cuisines were available, including Mughal, Chinese and Pakistani, for diners to choose from. The Town Municipal Administrations (TMA) ensured that sufficient entertainment was available for children and cartoon characters skipped across the roads and children got their faces painted. The Gulshan-e Iqbal TMA arranged for a ‘Mehfil-e-Ghazal’, where Qawwal Iqbal Shad entertained visitors with live performances.

Located in New Karachi, the Mehfil-e Ghazal and music hanagama  included competitions and contests for amateur singers. New Karachi TMA Administrator Kamal Ahmed said he was glad to see that the recent target killings did not ruin the festival.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2011.