LAHORE: Lahore’s kite makers say the price of cotton thread for Basant 2027 has climbed from about Rs2,000 to as much as Rs3,500 in roughly two weeks, warning that the six-month production head start the Punjab government granted to keep the festival affordable is being eaten away before most workshops have made a single kite.
The complaints came from manufacturers, dor coaters (dor makers), traders and veteran craftsmen described a market in which thread, kite paper and bamboo are being held back and resold at inflated rates. None of these raw materials is covered by the new licensing regime, which so far applies only to manufacturers.
Several participants blamed cash-rich investors for buying up stock early, while others urged the district administration to register raw-material suppliers alongside kite and dor makers. The festival is scheduled for March 12 to 14, 2027.
One manufacturer told The Lahore Times that thread had been selling for Rs2,000 some 15 to 20 days earlier but could no longer be found even at Rs3,500. “They’re withholding thread and blackmailing us,” he said.
A dor maker who coats string for daily wages said sellers were now asking Rs3,300 to Rs3,500, against a routine rate of Rs2,100. He said small coaters like him cannot afford to buy thread, prepare dor, store it and sell it themselves. “We work for wages,” he said, adding that the higher cost would inevitably show up in the price of dor.
A trader identified as Lala ji put the earlier thread rate at Rs1,800 to Rs2,000 and said it had suddenly jumped to Rs3,500–4,000. “I think a mafia is about to hijack this business,” he said, arguing that newcomers with deep pockets understood the profits but not the craft.
Kite paper has followed the same path, according to craftsman Pappu, who said a full tawa-size ream was being offered at Rs12,000, or Rs600 per dasta, while 1.5-tawa paper, which he said should cost no more than Rs5,000 a ream, was selling for about Rs8,500 to Rs10,000. He said the paper is imported from China. Another participant said reams that should hold 500 sheets were arriving with 480, or “20 kites gone,” as Pappu put it.
Veteran kite maker Ustad Piddi said poor-quality bamboo and lightweight paper were entering the market, and that glue does not hold on the paper once it is coloured. Another manufacturer explained how that feeds into prices, such as if bad bamboo that should yield 10 kites yields only four, the cost of the missing six is loaded onto the four that survive.
Sheikh Hamza shared his own experience from February, saying he paid Rs1,800 for a single 1.5-tawa gudda (kite), which meant 100 kites cost him Rs1.8 lakh. Such prices, he said, should not have happened.
Basant returned to Lahore from February 6 to 8, 2026, after a ban dating back to 2007, under the Punjab Regulation of Kite Flying Act, 2025. Buyers at the time reported kite string prices roughly doubling within days, and a citizen took the issue to the Lahore High Court, which directed the Lahore commissioner to act on prices. The district administration later said demand had turned out to be many times higher than anyone expected after an 18-year gap.
That shortage is the reason the government opened manufacturing about six months ahead of Basant 2027, rather than the roughly one month allowed last time – so that early stock was supposed to hold retail prices down. “The whole purpose of opening six months early was that things shouldn’t sell expensive,” a manufacturer said.
The Basant Portal opened to manufacturers on September 5, with a Rs1,000 registration fee. Of the 3,500 applications received, more than 3,000 have now been approved, and licences are being dispatched to manufacturers. The figures mark a turnaround from September 20, when reported that no licence had yet been issued two weeks after the portal opened.
A dor maker said inspectors had already visited his premises. Ustad Piddi, who works from Niazi Adda in the Walled City, said PML-N President Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had personally phoned him about a week before to order kites. Ustad Piddi said he told Mr Sharif to get his licence issued first, yet no inspector had visited his workshop so far. Several craftsmen said they cannot read or use a smartphone and had others file applications for them. Authorities urged people not to pay middlemen, stressing that the only charge is the Rs1,000 fee, paid online to the government through Easypaisa.
Each licence is tied to the address declared on the portal. According to Journalist Zohaib Saleem Butt, licence holders will receive two QR codes, the second of which will display their inventory of kites, spools and raw material. Goods cannot leave the workshop until trader licences are issued, which the administration has said will come in January or February.
Chairman Lahore District Kite Flying Association Khawaja Nadeem Wain wants thread makers registered so that only law-compliant thread reaches the market. He also warned that registration could create a new form of pressure, with registered sellers insisting buyers purchase only from them, and argued instead for treating kite materials like a price-controlled commodity with a working complaints system.
Earlier, the issue had been raised with the deputy commissioner, who told The Lahore Times that kite materials are not essential commodities like flour, sugar or rice that the government regulates, but that action is possible if hoarding or market distortion is reported. The DC asked people to lodge complaints through his office’s social media channels. One participant said more than 100 written applications were being prepared for submission in person, since many workers cannot file online.
Craftsmen also raised practical worries. One asked where a man living in a one-marla house would keep 300 spools a month when stock cannot be moved until early next year, and urged the government to issue trader licences first so investors can collect finished goods.
Residents of one neighbourhood said inspection teams had entered private rooms, including bathrooms, while women of the household were present, and that a young man was taken away after an old kite left over from last year’s ‘Lahore Basant’ was found in his house. Manufacturers asked the Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz to instruct departments to deal with households courteously and respect the privacy of women, many of whom make kites at home. One manufacturer said police demand “expenses” from workshops before leaving them alone.
The complaints against police, including anonymous ones, can be filed at the DC office. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had separately ordered a crackdown on corrupt police officials last month.
Ustad Piddi’s message to the deputy commissioner was simple, let poor people earn an honest living, and do not harass them the way they were harassed last time. He also repeated a long-standing demand that kite flying be allowed year-round, saying Nawaz Sharif had promised him it would be.
For the ruling PML-N, Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb told Dawn in May that the Basant 2027 regulations were issued on the Chief Minister’s directions to protect life and property. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, announcing the March dates in August, invited visitors from across Pakistan and abroad. After Basant 2026, she credited the festival’s revival to PML-N President Nawaz Sharif.
From the opposition, PTI Punjab spokesperson Brig (retd) Mushtaq said in January that the 2026 festival had been deliberately scheduled to overlap with his party’s protest call, while former Jamaat-e-Islami spokesperson Qaiser Sharif pointed to casualties caused by stray string. Meanwhile, the District Kite Flying Association’s chairman, Khawaja Nadeem Saeed Wain, has argued that manufacturers need at least four months to build adequate stock.
Leave a Reply