Sale of flags, badges on the rise

As Independence Day festivities gain momentum, sale of national flags, buntings, badges, dresses and other decorations at makeshift stalls has increased.

Shopkeepers and seasonal traders have set up their temporary stalls where people are seen buying Independence Day items.

According to roadside vendors, their main clients are children and young people who are very enthusiastic about the day in their own way.

Children and youth find joy in collecting stickers, badges and also beautifying their bicycles and motorbikes with special stickers inscribed with messages of Independence Day. A vendor at G-7 Road said the demand for the national flags and badges was on the rise as August 14 got nearer, adding that most of the motorists were buying flags to hoist on their cars.

Another seller at Sector G-10 Markaz commented that like every year this year too footpath stalls were doing a roaring business, trying to sell whatever they had as the entire inventory would go waste on August 15.

A motorist Arslan Ali said with the sale of national flag the sale of green and white dresses was also popular among the citizens. A buyer said: "we are coming to the footpath stalls for Independence Day shopping as the prices of items are cheap comparing to shops and malls." On the other hand, booksellers and shopkeepers say stickers and hand-held flags were also in high demand this year.

The bazaars are decorated with national flags whereas, stalls of colorful buntings, national flag buntings, portraits of Quaid-i-Azam and other national heroes have been set up too. Badges, caps, balloons and shirts inscribed with "Jashan-e-Azadi Mubarak" are stacked in large numbers at every market, said a citizen.

"The sale will gain even more momentum before August 14," a shopkeeper said, adding, "The date reminds every one of the sacrifices rendered to carve out a separate homeland for Muslims of the sub-continent.

It is our moral obligation to remind our children of the importance of Independence Day. We should be grateful to Quaid-e-Azam who struggled for the rights of the Muslims of sub-continent and gave us Pakistan," said a shopkeeper in Sector F-6 market.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2020.