PUNJAB’s conditional decriminalisation of kite-flying a week ago came as a breath of spring air, albeit with some concerns.

As someone who grew up in a city where kite-flying was not only fairly ubiquitous but almost de rigueur among youngsters across the socioeconomic spectrum, the ban imposed by legal and legislative measures almost two decades ago always seemed like overkill. Understandably, though, it was welcomed by families that had lost loved ones, particularly through decapitation by fortified string while riding motorbikes.

By any standard, this was unacceptable. Tragedies incurred by falling off a roof, or ignoring the traffic while chasing a free-floating kite across a busy road, can generally be avoided by applying common sense (which can only be learned, rather than legislated). But the potential lethality of unbreakable (and invariably invisible) string tautly stretched across a road is both indisputable and unconscionable. It shouldn’t have proved impossible for the authorities to respond by outlawing all varieties of lethal twine, and strictly policing the ban. Instead, they opted for overkill.

For Lahoris of a certain generation, it’s all but impossible to imagine the city without........

© Dawn