|
 Piaggio's Italian two-wheeler was the ultimate status symbol for
Pakistani bike aficionados in the 1960s and 70s, when bicycles
outstripped motorbikes on the roads and only a handful of people
could afford to import luxury items from Europe.
Over the past two decades, motorbike ownership rates have
skyrocketed in Pakistan, with locally assembled Chinese and
Japanese bikes clogging up the roads in a country where much of
the population is below the age of 30.
But for the likes of Zubair Ahmad Nagra, who runs the Vespa club
in the eastern city of Lahore, new and more fuel-efficient bikes
hold little allure.
He drives a Vespa, Italian for "wasp", imported into Pakistan by
his father in 1974.
"It was the first motorized vehicle owned by my father," said
Nagra. "I've been fond of it ever since."
Many long-term owners find that possessing a Vespa in Pakistan
is a labor of love, with original spare parts scant and only a
handful of mechanics skilled enough to restore the originals.
In Lahore, close to the Indian border, Vespa owners often have
to settle for low quality Indian-made parts or ask for mechanics
to fashion new pieces of bodywork from scratch.
Farrukh Shahbaz, who 14 years ago inherited his father's blue
1961 Vespa, has had to have the scooter repaired three times,
but he cherishes the love his father had for the machine.
[to top of second column] |
"My father told me it came packed in a wooden box," said Shahbaz,
50.
In the leafy capital Islamabad, once the oppressive summer heat
wanes, a handful of Western diplomats can be seen buzzing around on
their pastel-colored Vespas.
But they also are thin on the ground. Few expect the tide to turn,
with cheap motorbike ownership transforming the lives of many poor
and lower working class people in the rapidly urbanizing nation of
208 million people.
Nagra said Vespas were the second best gift Italy gave to the world
- "the first being pizza" - as he recalled driving from Lahore to
the Chinese border crossing at the Khunjerab Pass, some 15,397 feet
(4,693 meters) above sea level in the Karakoram mountains.
"They have not let us down a single time," he said.
(Editing by Drazen Jorgic and Nick Macfie)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
