Moti Bazaar livens up pre-Eid

Eid shopping has reached its peak at the city's 125-year-old historic women's shopping centre, Moti Bazaar.

A popular saying in the city goes that wedding shopping remains incomplete without visiting Moti Bazaar.

While shopkeepers are mostly men, the shoppers are primarily women. The market offers a complete range of women's necessities, including household items and bridal wear for brides and grooms, from normal to the highest quality.

Begum Sikander Mirza and Begum Nusrat Bhutto have also shopped here in the past. Sikh women pilgrims visiting Panja Sahib in Hassan Abdal also come here for shopping.

A wealthy Hindu trader and social worker, Moti Lal, founded Moti Bazaar in 1901. To help women escape the Hindu ritual of "Sati," in which widows were burned alive after the death of their husbands, he established a shelter named "Kanya Ashram" after his wife for women fleeing their homes.

The historic Kanya Ashram mansion had originally been built in 1883. Despite the passage of 143 years, the building still exists and now houses a government girls' school. Women who managed to escape becoming victims of Sati would reach the Kanya Ashram, where Moti Lal provided them shelter.

To help them sustain themselves and remain occupied, the women would sew and embroider pillows, quilts, sheets and dupattas.

Moti Lal placed these handmade items outside the ashram on a charpoy for sale. The hand-crafted household items quickly became popular among buyers. Soon, other local residents also began selling women's essential items outside their homes, and the area gradually developed into a market that came to be known as Moti Bazaar after its founder.