LAHORE: Civic agencies, departments, individuals and groups started celebrating the Independency Day on Thursday ahead of the formal flag-hoisting ceremonies, national anthems and events scheduled to be held on Friday (today).

The city witnessed several individuals and groups running bikes and cars on roads while holding Pakistani flags and chanting Pakistan Zindabad slogans. “After rendering sacrifices, our forefathers finally succeeded in getting freedom from the British rule in the form of this country. That is why the I-Day recalls the old memories forcing us to celebrate the independence,” Ahtesham, a motorcyclist, among a group of youngsters, told Dawn on Canal Road.

The sale/purchase of Pakistani flags, badges, stickers, handbills and other kind of material inscribed with national slogans and key messages on independence touched its peak on Thursday ahead of the formal I-day celebrations. A number of people including children thronged the stalls in several city markets and bought flags, buntings, stickers etc. “This time, the prices of such items are too much higher. Last year, I bought a flag along with a wooden bar (stick) for Rs400. But this time, it is being sold at Rs800 and above,” Nadeem, a resident of Johar Town, told this reporter at G-1 market.

LWMC: Lahore Waste Management Company started marking Independence Day with zeal and zest by organizing a cake-cutting ceremony.

Members of Provincial Assembly, political leadership and heads of civic agencies, Turkish contractors along with officials and sanitary workers attended the event.

All participants of the event were carrying flags. Furthermore, LWMC took out independence flag march of operational vehicles and workers in order to raise awareness among public regarding maintaining cleanliness.

PHA: Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) decorated its parks by displaying the flags reflected by LED lights, statues of Allama Iqbal, Quaid-i-Azam and other leaders.

Dancing fountains at Greater Iqbal Park were checked ahead of formal celebrations. From 12am, the authorities displayed fireworks at Greater Iqbal Park.

CITY ADMIN: City Administration in collaboration with the Lahore Metropolitan Corporation organised full dress rehearsal shows of a variety of events scheduled to be held to mark the I-day on Friday.

DC Danish Afzaal along with the officials checked flag hoisting venues including Town Hall, DC Office, Hazoori Bagh and other places. Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), Lahore Development Authority, Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (Tepa), zonal administrations and other departments also reviewed arrangements to hold a series of events to mark the I-day.

UNDERPASS: The engineering officials on Thursday completed concrete structure of Firdous Market Underpass, resulting in an overall progress of 70 per cent on this project.

Excavation work from the barrel will be started next week followed by the construction of roads adjacent to the underpass.

LDA Director General Ahmad Aziz Tarar also visited the project site and inspected the work been carried out there. He directed the officials to ensure quality of civil work besides utilising all possible resources for completing this challenging task on time.

He urged the contractors as well as the engineers for pulling up their socks for achieving this target. On this occasion, the engineering officials informed the DG that construction of all the 880 piles and 350 meters long retaining walls had already been completed.

Wasa infrastructure comprising 18 inches diameter sewerage line had also been layed.

BOR: A ceremony was organised by the Board of Revenue Punjab at the civil secretariat on Thursday to appreciate the hardworking field officers who showed good performance in collection of government taxes in their areas.

Senior Member Board of Revenue Babar Hayat Tarar distributed certificates among nine deputy commissioners, 21 additional deputy commissioners (revenue) and 38 assistant commissioners.

Addressing the ceremony, SMBR Tarar said that BoR has collected Rs67.331 billion taxes in 36 districts of the province.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2020