*Citizens rush to hospitals due to over-eating, reckless driving
Gluttony and reckless driving remain the two major trends that the faithful manifest in the post-Ramazan jubilation on the Eid festival.
The trend has been observed in all major public hospitals in the city where a large number of gastro patients showed up as well as victims of drunk driving and stray bullets.
Young Doctors Association (YDA) General Secretary Dr Salman Kazmi said government hospitals remained full of patients who were having gastro and acid peptic disease due to overeating.
“The surgical emergency was full of people with traffic accidents from drunk driving and other accidents. Also stray bullets fired by people injured many pedestrians,” he added.
According to the religious belief of Muslims, God restricts the Satan from deceiving people during the holy month of fasting. It is only after this month that the Satan gets its freedom and gets back its powers on humans.
Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman Allama Tahir Ashrafi, however, said the two streams of good and evil are always present in human beings but during Ramazan the urge of evil declines.
“God has made humans powerful to make decisions and hence we are responsible for our acts. Satan only urges, and it is the humans who act and cause trouble. It is not reasonable to blame all this reckless behaviour on Satan,” Ashrafi added.
Other than the reckless chunk, a large majority thronged parks, zoo and restaurants. Interestingly, the recently inaugurated Azadi Interchange remained a major attraction for visitors. It pulled so much rush that the traffic wardens had to block its entrance at various intervals.
“There are so many people standing along the elevated bridge and taking photographs as if a wonder of the world has been constructed. It has caused immense bottle necks forcing us to block further traffic,” Shabbir, a warden on the spot told Pakistan Today.
Like every year, the zoo remained one of the major crowd pullers as a large number of families showed up. The cinemas also remained fully booked in all parts of the city from the elite DHA to the more public Lakshami Chowk cinemas.
“There are a limited number of options available to the citizens. Going out to a park and have food or watch a movie is what people can do for entertainment,” Ahsan Ali, a banker said.
There was also great deal of rush in the parks including Bagh-e-Jinnah, Race Course, Lahore Zoo, Sozo Water Park, Jallo Park, Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Shalamar Bagh, Minar-e-Pakistan, Lahore Fort, Badshahi Mosque, NBP Park, Model Town Park, Fortress Stadium Joy Land, Bara Darri, Shahdra Park/tomb of Noor Jahan Begum, Funland, cinema halls and others picnic resorts to spend their holidays and leisure moments.
Another reason for such rush is the long weekend ahead as most of the people will resume work from Monday.