LAHORE: More than 2,500 people have applied for kite and string manufacturing licences ahead of Basant 2027, but eight days after the process opened, not a single licence has been issued — leaving workshops idle at the exact point in the calendar when they should be building stock.
Manufacturers who spoke to The Lahore Times said the delay is now the single biggest threat to supply for a festival the Punjab government has scheduled for 12 to 14 March 2027.
Registration for manufacturers opened on the Basant Portal on 5 September, roughly six months before the festival and a far longer lead time than the month-long window applicants had before Basant 2026. That head start is now being eaten by processing time.
Manufacturing may only begin once a licence and the accompanying No Objection Certificate are in hand. Until that document is issued, cutting paper, dyeing cotton string or assembling panna remains an offence — which means the six-month runway the government advertised has not actually started for anyone.
Danyal Butt, a Lahore-based applicant, told The Lahore Times he had applied under the manufacturer category and had received nothing. Malik Muzamil, also from Lahore, said his experience was identical: verification calls and physical visits, but no certificate.
Screenshots of portal dashboards shared with this newspaper by four separate manufacturer applicants show a consistent pattern. Each carries a Rs1,000 payment against a generated PSID marked PAID, the category Kite Flying – Manufacturer, the department listed as District Administration, and a status reading Resubmitted. One dashboard, filed at 19:51 on 5 September, and another filed at 23:07 on 9 September, both show the same status; one displays the note “No Observations”, meaning no objection has been recorded against the file. A separate seller-category application on the same account sits in Draft.
Applicants say the status labels are the source of the confusion. Some files show pending; others flip to re-apply or resubmitted without any stated objection, leaving applicants unsure whether an error has been found or whether the file is simply waiting in a queue.
One applicant described the process to The Lahore Times, he said he had just received a call from the Deputy Commissioner’s office asking for a fresh photograph and his address, was told only that verification was being carried out, and then the call was cut — after which his application began showing as resubmitted. “What is the scene?” he asked.
The district administration says applicants are being vetted by Additional Assistant Commissioners with support from the Parks and Horticulture Authority force, and that officers have been instructed to complete the exercise quickly. Licences, it says, will be issued once verification is complete.
The licensing regime exists because of the death toll. Basant was banned for 18 years after metal- and chemical-coated string killed motorcyclists and pedestrians and brought down power lines. The festival returned from 6 to 8 February 2026 under the Punjab Regulation of Kite Flying Act, 2025, treated by the province as a pilot; the Home Department told the Lahore High Court that 17 people died during those three days.
The licensing framework has already shifted once. The administration proposed five designated production zones in August and then withdrew that decision; licensed makers may now produce anywhere inside Lahore district, but only at the address approved on the licence.
The District Kite Flying Association has argued for months that manufacturers need at least four months of production time, and has pressed for licences to be issued early. Trade and seller registration is not expected to open until January or February.
Only approved kite sizes, cotton string and panna are permitted under the framework. Everything outside it remains illegal, and police are enforcing that distinction daily, including a Dolphin Squad sweep that netted 70 kite sellers.
The district administration has been approached for comment on the number of files cleared so far and on the meaning of the “resubmitted” status. Its response will be added to this report.
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