PESHAWAR
With only few days left in Eidul Fitr celebrations, the shopping activities gained pace in Khyber Pakthunkhwa especially in Peshawar where great rush of buyers were being seen at readymade garments and local footwear due to at affordable prices.
Almost all shopping arcades and outlets of the readymade garments and footwear are flooded with shoppers in Peshawar City and Cantonment where Eid shopping continued till late night.
Great rush is being seen at historic Qissa Khwani bazaar, Karimpura, Meena Bazaar, University Roads’ shopping arcades and Saddar Road where people especially women, girls and children are seen busy in selection of an appropriate readymade garments with a matching shoes to look different on Eid.
The readymade garments with matching artificial jewelry’s shops are the centre of attraction of girls in the city markets where they were seen selecting appropriate items for themselves and loved ones ahead of Chand Raat.
“I came from Khyber tribal district along with my family to buy readymade garments for children at Peshawar where prices are reasonable compare to my city,” Asghar Afridi, a buyer at Deans Trade Centre Saddar Road told APP.
“To avoid Chand Raat rush, I came to my favorite city where almost all Eid items, especially cotton suits and long white Kurta are available that was hardly seen in the past,” said Asghar.
Following prices discounts on most of locally made footwear and stitched clothes as special Eid offer, most of residents of nearby districts including Charsadda, Nowshera, Khyber, Kohat, Swabi, Mohmand and Bajaur districts are seen visiting Qissa Khwani, Jahangira Mohalla and adjoining cloth markets, garments and shoes shops to buy their favorite lawns and cotton prints with matching shoes.
The high stitching cost of tailors and few days in Eidul Fitr left us with no option but to buy Shalwar Qameez along with Kurta and Charsadda Chappal,” said Asghar, adding Shalwar Qameez is priced at Rs5000 at local market while Charsadda Chappal is being sold at Rs3500 which he said in the range of salaried and middle class,” he said.
On the other side, most of the tailors in Peshawar have stopped accepting fresh booking citing nearer of Eid Ul Fitr and power outages. “Eidul Fitr is around the corner and despite hiring of extra tailors, we can’t accept more booking due to long hours load shedding,” said tailor Siyar Ali at Hashtnagri in Peshawar City.
Most poor families are taking keen interest in buying stitched Shalwar Kameez and Kurta, cotton and lawn readymade garments due to arrival of summer besides henna and artificial ornaments after tailors closed new bookings
Another tailor Ayub Khan at Pabbi bazaar said that girls are taking keen interest in Shalwar kameez and Kurta, artificial jewellery and henna on the occasion of Eid. “I hired extra labour working till Sehri to fulfill my customers’ placed Eid orders,’’ he said, adding that the new booking has been closed. He said increase of shop’s rents, labour, load shedding and fabrics materials are major reasons behind hike in tailors’ charges.
The vendors’ shopkeepers and immature tailors also came out in large numbers by earning two times higher this year. Shoppers and customers complained about high prices of fabrics and shoes materials, traffic jams and lack of car parking in shopping malls and urged the PTI led Govt for its immediate solutions to make Eid shopping convenient for people.
The shopkeepers demanded the PTI Govt to provide car parking facilities at shopping malls by making it mandatory before issuing of no objection certificates, and quick removal of all stuff from footpaths to facilitate Eid shoppers.
The Deputy Commissioner said that magistrates and Assistant Commissioners were directed to visit bazaars and shopping centres to facilitate shoppers. Traffic police were directed to ensure smooth flow of traffic and imposed heavy fines against violators of traffic rules and singles .
