RAWALPINDI: Following in the footsteps of the last Punjab government, the PTI has also been hanging promotional party banners and streamers along Murree Road and from the pillars of the metro bus track, in violation of the law.

Banners and posters have been banned by the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) on the pillars of the elevated road, but this has not deterred local PTI leaders.

There are banners in the middle of the road on the way to Chandni Chowk to Faizabad. Metro bus pillars have been decorated with photographs of ministers and local leaders who have received new assignments at the government and party level.

Under the Parks and Horticulture Authority Act 2012, the PHA charges public and private parties to use billboards, sky signs and outdoor advertisements according to the rate approved by the government.

PHA Chairman Asif Mehmood said the PHA has outsourced advertisements on lampposts along Murree Road, and it was the contractor’s decision whether to charge for political banners.

However, he said he had taken notice of banners hanging from the metro bus pillars and asked the authority to remove them immediately. He said some were removed and others will be soon. He added that the government is allowed to hang banners on the metro pillars for public welfare campaigns for free, and promotions of government schemes are not banned.

A senior PHA official said that PTI local leaders were angered by the PHA’s removal of their banners. He said the authority’s chairman believed that all banners and posters that become an eyesore will be removed.

Former PML-N MNA Malik Shakeel Awan accused the PTI of double standards, saying the party criticised others for personal promotion while banners and posters with personal advertisements for local PTI leaders were installed in the city under government expenditure.

He said the metro bus pillars should be cleared of all kinds of advertisement or they will become advertising boards. Mr Awan claimed the PML-N government did a lot to keep the metro bus pillars clean in the last four years, after which the condition of metro bus stations had gone from bad to worse because no repairs had been carried out.

He claimed the present government was advertising and taking credit for work launched by the PML-N as there were no new projects in the city.

PPP leader Nasir Mir said affairs need to be regulated in the city and it should be kept clean. He said posters and banners belonging to opposition parties have been banned while there was no such ban on the ruling party.

“There is no harm in installing banners, but the government should charge double for those that are not for public welfare and just promote the party and local leaders,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2019