Billboards taken down in Karachi but not taken away

Hoardings removed from Sharae Quaideen lying by roadside, creating traffic hurdles

KARACHI: The drive to take down billboards across the city seems to have gained some momentum in the last few days but at the cost of traffic hurdles at some locations.

On Sunday evening, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan paid a visit to different areas of the city, along with commissioner Ejaz Ahmed Khan and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) administrator Laeeq Ahmed. He gave orders to the officials to remove all illegal billboards on Bahadurabad and Tariq Road.

Following his visit, the East District Municipal Corporation (DMC) undertook an aggressive drive to remove billboards but it was in such a hurry that it left the giant structures lying on the roadside. By Monday morning, Sharae Quaideen was littered with abandoned billboards, which created roadblocks and slowed down traffic.

District East Traffic SP Syed Qamar Abbas Rizvi told The Express Tribune that they have asked the East DMC officials to remove them but they have failed to do so. These billboards lying on the roads can cause an accident, he pointed out, explaining why they have called in welders to cut the iron rod and then remove them from the road. “It’s not our duty to remove these but we have to,” he said.

Meanwhile, an owner of a kiosk on Sharae Quaideen said that small Suzuki vans were used to lift smaller billboards that were installed on the footpaths. However, the huge ones have been lying since morning as the DMC did not have any vehicle to remove them, he said.  East DMC administrator Rehmatullah Shaikh and municipal commissioner Waseem Mustafa Soomro were unavailable for comments despite repeated attempts.

District South swings into action

Meanwhile, District South deputy commissioner Muhammad Saleem Rajput told The Express Tribune that the billboard removal drive in his district is in full swing. There were as many as 180 billboards on public property in District South and 70 of them have been removed, he said.

“We start removing the billboards from 9pm till Sehri,” he said, adding that around 10 to 12 billboards are removed every day. He estimated that their drive against illegal billboards will end by June 25.

SC orders   

Earlier in May, the Supreme Court had maintained that there was no law that permits the installation of outdoor advertising billboards and signboards on ‘public property’. It ordered the KMC, the Defence Housing Authority and all the cantonment boards to remove these billboards across the city by June 30.

The judges had also explained in detail as to what type of place will come under the definition of ‘public property’. The SC observed that the term ‘public property’ has broad meaning and, therefore, the judges clarified it in order to avoid any ambiguity.

The term ‘public property’ shall include the following places: roads, sidewalks, medians on the centre of a road or service lane, overhead bridges and underpasses, overhead pedestrian walkways or bridges, roundabouts, green belts or dividers between a road, pedestrian lanes and nullahs (storm water drains) and the banks of nullahs.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2016.