Defaced murals on Karachi Press Club walls restored

Published January 7, 2017
The restored mural of Zubaida Mustafa. — Phool Patti Pakistan's Truck Art Team's Facebook page
The restored mural of Zubaida Mustafa. — Phool Patti Pakistan's Truck Art Team's Facebook page

The murals on the walls of Karachi Press Club which were vandalised on Thursday, allegedly by members of politico-religious parties, have been restored by senior artist and cartoonist Feica and others.

Restoration underway — Phool Patti Pakistan's Truck Art Team's Facebook page
Restoration underway — Phool Patti Pakistan's Truck Art Team's Facebook page

A post on the Phool Patti Pakistan Truck Art Team's Facebook page said the team was a part of the restoration effort.

Messages left by vandals had previously been spray-painted over the portraits of nearly all women activists featured on the wall, including Perveen Rehman, Zubeida Mustafa, Yasmeen Lari and Fatima Surraiya Bajiya.

Though the vandals remain individually unidentified, the walls had the initials of politico-religious parties Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST) and Tehreek-i-Labbaik (TLY) sprayed on them.

Speaking to Dawn.com, Feica said he had first checked what kind of spray had been used to deface the murals, then made a visit to a chemical market and bought a chemical that could clean it without affecting the paint beneath. "I took acrylics along with me just in case the the paint was ruined."

With the use of local chemicals that he thought would work best without ruining the painted work, Feica scrubbed the sprayed slogans off with pieces of cloth.

"The time we chose [7:30pm on Jan 6] was because we didn't want to catch attention," he said.

After a while, some senior journalists leaving the club joined in while others stood and witnessed the act. The work ended by 8:45pm.

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