With less than a week before Eidul Azha, the residents of the garrison city of Rawalpindi can be seen thronging shopping malls and cattle markets. The Eid shopping has finally gained momentum here at almost all the major markets and bazaars of the city. People are seen rushing to buy dresses, household items and sacrificial animals.
Women are busy in buying clothes, footwear, cosmetics, sweaters, coats, henna, bangles and other items while men are visiting makeshift cattle markets to buy goats, rams, heifers and camels for their Eidul Azha sacrifices. Big crowds of girls were witnessed on Tuesday evening on bangles and henna stalls in various areas of city. Shopkeepers have decorated their shops with colourful lights to attract customers. The shopping frenzy is expected to reach its peak during the next few days. On Tuesday, this scribe visited various markets and shopping malls including Commercial Market, Tench Bhatta, Peoples Colony, Saddar Bazaar, Moti Bazaar and Raja Bazaar. Taking advantage of the shopping rush, shopkeepers have also started to fleece shoppers with both hands.
Some of the shoppers told this scribe on Tuesday that only the people with deep pockets could afford to complete their shopping lists.
“It is difficult to buy sacrificial animal as well as clothes and other accessories during these inflationary times. The prevailing price-hike is limiting me to be content with buying clothes only for my children,” said Rabia, a visitor to Moti Bazzar.
Aamna, a visitor to the Commercial Market, said buying bangles and henna was always one of the greatest Eid thrills. “Like every year, I’ll spending almost the whole night with my friends, visiting markets and buying bangles and other accessories,” she added. She complained shopkeepers were exploiting the Eid shopping frenzy and were overcharge customers. A shopkeeper at Raja Bazar said a great number of shoppers were thronging markets and that he was having a good business.
