Daily Times

Supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) have defaced the murals of Karachi’s women activists by tacking party posters on them.

The murals, featured on the walls of Karachi Press Club, were painted in October 2016 by Phool Patti Pakistan’s Truck Art Team as a part of ‘I Am Karachi’ movement, to honor activists and Karachi’s female heroes.

These murals featured portraits of renowned women activists including Orangi Pilot Project director Perween Rehman, journalist Zubeida Mustafa, activist and T2F founder, Sabeen Mahmud, architect Yasmin Lari and novelist Fatima Surraya Bajia.

The party posters, apparently printed by PML-N’s two supporters Agha Asad and Latif Shah, carry photos of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and PML-N’s election symbol lion.

The posters were put up a few days ago when PML-N premier Nawaz Sharif returned to face jail in a bid to get people to join a peaceful protest outside the press club. Another poster of PML-N ticket holder Tahir Shahzada contesting election from provincial assembly seat in Sindh, PS-106 is also displayed on these murals.

Four of such posters were displayed right on the face of Perween Rahman’s mural. Perween was a renowned social activist who was murdered on 13 March 2013.

This is not first time that these colourful murals were vandalized. In January 2017, a protest of religious parties was held outside Karachi Press Club to counter the mass gatherings organised across the country to honour slain Punjab governor Shaheed Salmaan Taseer on his death anniversary. After the protests, these murals were found painted with black color. The protestors had also scribbled, on the murals, political slogans favouring Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST) and Tehreek-i-Labbaik (TLY) and drawn beards on the portraits of female activists.

Published in Daily Times, July 22^nd 2018.