KARACHI  -  As Pakistan's 71st Independence Day is approaching, enthusiasm and zeal is increasing and people belonging to every walk of life are preparing to celebrate the day in a befitting manner.

Children are especially showing their vigour, zeal and traditional enthusiasm to celebrate 14th August, as sale for national flags and other items is in full swing at all main bazaars of Larkana city.

The items most prominently displayed at markets, road side, or in small neighbourhood shops, are small paper flags, badges, paper caps, buntings and even large flags.

"Children of course are the most eager to buy these items," a shopkeeper of a bookstore at Bunder Road Larkana said.

Apart from official arrangements to celebrate the Independence Day, people of all age groups are making arrangements on their own by decorating their houses and streets and organising functions.

A visit to main bookstores in Larkana city showed a great national fervour among the people, who were busy in buying different items to express their enthusiasm for celebrating the Independence Day.

In commercial areas like Shahi bazaar, Bunder Road, Pakistani Chowk and Julius Bazaar Larkana, Station Road, shopkeepers have set up special stalls for flags and other items. Booksellers and shopkeepers say stickers and hand-held stickers are in high demand.

The bazaars are decorated with national flags where stalls of colourful buntings, Pakistani flag buntings, portraits of Quaid-e-Azam and other national heroes have been set up, Badges, caps, balloons and shirts inscribed with "Jashan-e-Azadi Mubarak" are stacked in large numbers.

"However the sale will gain momentum before 14th August," a shopkeeper said. The 14th August reminds everyone of the sacrifices rendered to carve out a separate homeland for Muslims of the sub-continent.

"It is our moral obligation to remind our children of the importance of Independence. We should be grateful to Quaid-e-Azam who struggled for the rights of the Muslims of sub-continent and gave us Pakistan," said a high school teacher Muhammad Azam Soomro.

Talking to APP, shopkeepers Wazir Ali Shaikh, Naeem Soomro, Muhammad Ibrahim Qureshi and Imdad Ali Shaikh said people especially children and youth keep visiting from morning till late evening to buy the items required to celebrate the Independence Day.

They said people of all ages visit the stalls and shops, as persons even in 18s to 40s buy national flags to hoist on their bicycles, motorcycles, cars, jeeps, offices and houses and children mostly buy badges, shirts, caps etc.