‘Not practical to wrap up weddings at 10 pm’

LAHORE: As the wedding season continues, the hosts face difficulties in abiding by the newly laid law and expressed dissatisfaction on winding-up the wedding functions before 10 pm.
On the order of Lahore District Coordination Officer Ahad Cheema, surveillance teams inspect different marriage halls in search of people breaking the law. Unhappy wedding hosts complained that managing a large number of guests and making sure that they reach the function on time was almost impossible and thus it was impractical to close down ceremonies by 10pm.
Mustafa Ijaz, a businessman during the wedding ceremony of his son, said, “I have specially asked the guests to strictly follow the time schedule and I made it a point by printing this on invitation cards as well. But 700 people are expected to arrive today, how can I ensure that all of them would reach the marriage hall on time?” Mustafa said that the hall management was continuously pressurising him to allow them to serve dinner but most of his guest had not even arrived yet.
“You know how the traffic jams are nowadays. Managing and catering to a large number of people and ensuring that not only they come on time but leave by 10pm as well is impossible,” he said. Marriage Hall Association President Mian Mohammad Illyas said that it is a difficult task to assure that all marriage halls’ closure at 10 pm sharp.
He said that there were many problems that the hosts had to go through. “Sometimes the Barat doesn’t come on time, sometimes people get late in finding the venue, sometimes other unexpected incidents take place, and people get late. I think the DCO should be flexible enough to anticipate such problems,” said Illyas.
He said he was not against the law but problems face by the general public should be respected. He said, “Venues where people are done with dinner and just sitting and enjoying music should be raided and cleared off but genuine problems should be respected and handled with care.
Marriages have always been this way since many years and it’s going to take some time for hosts as well as guests to change their ways,” he explained.