Several Rawalpindi walls wear unpleasant look

Ibne Ahmad

Travel anywhere in Rawalpindi, one finds a number of posters, hoardings, sign boards displayed. Many of these have also been defaced with posters pasted over them. With the relevant authorities failing to take action against the defacement of public property in the city, several institutions including private and government buildings remain covered with commercial posters or wall writings.

“Even the boundary walls of the schools, colleges, hospitals and houses are replete with numerous commercial ads and wall writings. Same is the plight of the walls of the flyovers, court complexes, overhead bridges and bus shelters. Even electric poles across the city have not been spared,” says Sajjad Ali from Saddar Area.

“The violators like surveyors and polio workers have defaced the newly painted main entrance of my house with markings. When questioned they said it they did under compulsion so that the next team visiting your locality shouldn’t bother you anymore,” complains Shabbir Ali, from the Airport Road.

“Be it the old city area, a posh neighbourhood or even a slum, posters defacing walls and public property stare at the onlooker. In flagrant violations of public norms, countless places are flooded with posters of every kind, courtesy the relaxed approach of the authorities concerned,” says Azmat Ali, from Scheme-III.

“What is a source of public concern is that signposts with vital public info are covered with such posters. The signposts that help the visitors find their way around the city are the first victim,” adds Azmat.

“On the order of the city administration occasionally steps were taken to remove bills and posters from the boundary walls of the buildings, but with partial success as the leftovers of the removed posters still depict unpleasant looks,” laments Narmeen Ali from Sadiqabad area.

“It is surprising that the district administration hardly bothers to penalise the offenders whose addresses are cited beneath the commercial posters while wall writings carry the proof of identity of advertisers. Such nuisances should be dealt with strongly,” says Nisar Hussain.

“The defacement of government properties and public places is indefensible; therefore strict instructions should be issued by the city fathers to take appropriate action against the offenders,” adds Nisar.

“There appears to be no check on defacement of public property. It continues unabated. Many city areas, including the bus stands and the railway station are not spared. Flyovers in the city have turned into a popular space to paste posters, pictures and advertisements,” says Faakhar Ali, from Satellite Town.

“The defacement of public properties is not a new thing in our city. It has been going on for a long time. All I can say that it takes time to build infrastructures but people deface them in no time,” says Nadeen Jaafri, a city resident.

“I think there exists no law to prevent this nuisance, otherwise pasting posters, writing on the walls, wall paintings or putting up banners without the prior written permission could have been banned or if the law is there what is lacking is its implementation,” adds Nadeem Jaafri.

“There is a lot of resentment among us, the residents, over pasting of posters by politicians’ supporters or private institutions but not many air their grievances. Nothing is going to happen if we lodge a complaint. We will only invite the ire of workers of political parties. That’s why the most people prefer to spend money to undo the damage than file a complaint,” says Sadiq Ali, a Murree Road resident.