Punjab government is all set to swing into action to clamp down marriage functions violating the ban regarding time limit described in the standing orders issued by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
City District Government Lahore is gearing up to raid marriage halls that remain open later than 10pm and squads are being made for this purpose. Well-placed sources told Pakistan Today that CDGL has come into action to teach strict lesson to owners of marriage halls in provincial capital who were violating the orders. The officials of CDGL, local Town Administrations and police cops would raid the halls, sources revealed. Heavy fines and arrests would also be made and the licenses of violating Marriage Halls can also be cancelled, sources added.
The ban on the marriage functions after 10pm was aimed at conserving electricity and preventing night-time robberies and terrorist activities as the law and order situations is often disturbed by events of aerial firing and fire crackers. However, despite ban and crackdown drives in the past, the violations have not stopped.
Marriage galls’ owners had also filed petition in Lahore High Court against the ban claiming that the government’s argument to order a cut-off time for weddings was baseless. Marriage Halls Association General Secretary, Javaid Nasir had filed the petition.
The petitioner had rejected the justification of government for issuing time limit for marriage functions and dubbed it unjust. Nasir had argued that instead of saving electricity the restriction was actually resulting in higher consumption of power as the citizens were compelled to hold the functions at peak hours of electricity usage instead of late night when the consumptions was lower. The owners claimed that constitution ensured the freedom of doing lawful businesses but the 10pm deadline had destroyed the marriage hall business. It had also made it harder for families and their guests to enjoy weddings.
An owner in Walton asking not to be named said the argument of security reasons for deadline was childish. He said weddings were safer than cinemas, restaurants and theatres, adding that people felt secure in wedding functions because they were in the company of relatives but cinema viewers, theatre visitors and restaurant goers operated in small groups and if a deadline had not been imposed on them why were the marriage hall owners being made to suffer?
Not only those running businesses of marriage halls but citizens too have concerns over the ban and said there were many other activities that needed to be banned.
“Weddings are the one of very few occasions when families gather and celebrate and restricting them not to do so later than 10pm is a violation of fundamental rights of citizens,” Syed Faizan Abbas Jaffer, a rights’ activist said, adding that the ban was in violation of the constitution and should be lifted.
No
1. Worldover in all cultures, wedding functions are hold in daytime or in eve. There is no practise of late night functions even in countries where there is no energy crises.
2. International: Even the shopping arcades close by 7 or 8pm and people spend time with their families.
3. Early to bed and early to rise.
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