KARACHI: With the purpose of raising awareness about eradicating curable blindness from Pakistan, Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust (LRBT) organised the ‘Ride for Sight’, a two-day event including a number of events such as an auto show, a Harley Davidson owners’ ride, a female motorcyclists group — Pink Riders — rally and the cyclists’ group, Critical Mass Karachi, also riding from Clifton to the Mazar-i-Quaid at the break of dawn on the Independence Day.

On Sunday, the opening day, the PakWheels Grand Azadi Auto Show 2023 at the Port Grand was the place to be for all young car enthusiasts of the city. The 80 to 100 cars, mostly old models of Charade, Datsun, Mazda, Honda, Suzuki, Toyota and Volkswagen, with an occasional sport utility vehicle (SUV) thrown in here or there, had been given new golden, silver and metallic blue rims sticking out further than the tyres. Their engines had been rebuilt and modified, too, with increased horsepower and torque. If not that then they had done away with their car silencers to make them louder and more aggressive.

Ibad Abdullah Shaikh had done that and more to his 1995 Honda Civic, elder to him by several years. Installing a spark plug on his car’s exhaust pipe, wired to the coil, with a toggle switch control, he was igniting unburned fuel in the tailpipe to create gunshot sounds along with the vroom vroom. A couple of other cars had also done something similar. And despite the scary sounds that they were making, despite the covering of ears with the palms of your hands to protect your eardrums, all these cars were the centre of attention at the show.

Fatima Ahsan, a visitor to the auto show, couldn’t help but jump with every scary sound from the cars as Ahsan Ali, her husband, smiled. His smile got broader when she became used to the noise. “We are just glad we didn’t bring our baby girl here,” laughed Fatima.

The 25-year-old, Usman Ahmed, had also modified his two-door 1992 Suzuki Swift GTI by giving it a new colour, side skirts, fancy rims and a broader exhaust pipe. Asked if a noisy car would attract the traffic constable’s wrath on the road, the young man smiled before shaking his head. “No actually, as long as your documents and licence plates are intact and you don’t have dark or tinted windows,” he said.

There were also around 25 heavy bikes at the auto show, which also roared on to the scene to add to the excitement of the visitors. And in contrast, you had a big stall for the Vlektra motorcycles, which didn’t make any noise at all and didn’t use any fuel at all, too, since they are electric. “I have a heavy bike because I love its sound, but I also have to acknowledge the fact that electric vehicles are the future,” said Sameer Shaikh who was riding a twin cylinder Benelli bike.

Later, the event continued at Clifton where some 20 riders on their Harley Davidsons rode up to DHA Phase VIII and back to spread the message of awareness for LRBT, which is that no one should go blind just because they cannot afford the treatment, and that reversible blindness can be eradicated from Pakistan.

The ‘Ride for Sight’ concludes on Monday.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2023