Political campaigns an outlet for defacing private property

Although campaigning is an integral part of election season, its unsupervised extreme can lead to nuisance, as can be seen in the port city, where reckless wall chalking of slogans and hoisting of flags has defaced the appearance of public and private properties alike.

For instance, Mohammad Abbas, a resident of the Martin Quarters area, had the walls of his house vandalised by party slogans during a recent electoral campaign. "The walls of my house had been freshly painted just recently and one stroke of a party worker's paint brush put to waste both my efforts and money," bemoaned Abbas, who had to pay for a repaint out of his own pocket.

Seconding Abbas, Mrs Shahid, a resident of the Lines area, said that parties participating in political campaigning mindlessly vandalised private property, paying no heed to the fact that many people had spent their hard earned money trying to beautify their homes.

"Some workers write with chalks while others simply blacken the walls with paint. Residents have no choice but to helplessly endure since they fear the repercussions of filing a formal complaint against a political party," deplored Mrs Shahid, who resented the government's unwillingness to curtail and penalise the destructive activities of party workers.

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Residents' complaints were acknowledged by Mohammad Sohail Khan, a social leader, who confirmed observing the workers of several political parties running their electoral campaigns by chalking, painting or hoisting symbolic flags outside and around public walls, footpaths, poles or the outer walls of private residences out of their undying eagerness to gain publicity and secure votes, all without a no objection certificate (NOC).

"Even though political campaigning before elections is the right of every party or individual candidate, the publicity activities should be organised in accordance with the law and the Election Commission's Code of Conduct. Under no circumstances should the private property of citizens be damaged during such campaigns," rebuked Dr Samara Sultan, Professor at the Political Science Department of the University of Karachi (KU).

It is pertinent to mention that as per Section 180(3)(d) of the Election Act 2017, no person or political party is allowed to do wall chalkings for the purpose of canvassing for an election.

Given the law's clarity vis-a-vis wall chalkings, the Express Tribune spoke to Afzal Zaidi, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation's (KMC) Municipal Commissioner, who acknowledged that graffiti during political campaigns was a recurring problem. "The KMC in collaboration with other local government departments is initiating a campaign for the removal of wall graffiti, political flags and other publicity posters and banners. To overcome this problem on the main highways of the city, beautiful paintings will cover the surrounding walls so that slogans, graffiti, and advertising pamphlets cannot be put up," announced Zaidi.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2023.