City admin fails to remove billboards despite court orders

Author: By Aslam Shah

KARACHI: Despite clear directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, uniform system for billboards in the metropolis has not been implemented since last two years.

The Supreme Court has ordered to remove all dangerous and hazardous billboards from various areas of the city and spare the city from becoming a jungle of haphazard billboards. The SC has also directed to implement the clauses of bye-laws regarding distance between billboards, their design, width, height, size and most importantly their supporting base to ensure stability and also uniformity.

Earlier, 17 stakeholders, governing city had agreed to remove all large, dangerous, illegal and hazardous billboards. However, none of them has implemented the order of the apex court despite passage of two years.

The comparative study of Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) bye-laws and cantonment boards and other stakeholders was also to be carried out to ensure uniformity in this regard.

Last month, during a meeting, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan has directed to remove illegal and hazardous billboards and hoardings from the city within a week.

Station Commander (Military Land) Karachi Brigadier Zaheer Ahmed, ex-administrator Karachi Roshan Ali Shaikh, Karachi Commissioner Syed Asif Hyder Shah, deputy commissioners of South and East, administrators of Karachi South and East, and officers of various cantonment boards also attended the meeting.

The governor has directed to remove hoardings and billboards installed on the rooftop of buildings and inside buildings, as these could prove fatal during windy conditions and in heavy rains.

He directed to install billboards outside the airport, containing basic information regarding the metropolis and the province so as to apprise the people coming to the city specially foreigners about Karachi and the province. He also directed former Sindh Building Control Authority (SCBA) director general Agha Maqsood Abbas to accelerate the work of identification of dangerous and dilapidated buildings and vacating the same as soon as possible.