KARACHI, June 26: As all land-controlling authorities in the city are involved in the lucrative business of advertising hoardings in their respective jurisdictions, they must all share equal blame for the heavy death toll caused by falling boards in the wake of Saturday’s storm.

A total of 104 hoardings had fallen in Saturday’s storm and torrential rain out of which nine hoardings fell in the city government’s controlled areas and 95 in the areas controlled by other authorities, killing nine people on the spot.

Well-placed sources told Dawn that a presentation given to the top authorities of the province at a meeting held after Saturday’s calamity suggested that nine billboards fell in areas controlled by the Karachi Cantonment Board, killing three people; three boards fell in the Defence Housing Authority controlled areas, causing death of one person; 51 billboards fell in the areas controlled by the Faisal Cantonment Board though, luckily, no one was killed or injured; 12 billboards installed on the Pakistan Railway land fell; three billboards fell in the area controlled by the Station Headquarters/Army; nine hoardings fell in the Civil Aviation Authority controlled area; five billboards fell in the SITE area; and one each fell in the areas controlled by the Pakistan Rangers, the Pakistan Sports Board and the Askari Park.

At least nine hoardings fell in the city government’s jurisdiction besides many others which were bent or twisted, posing a danger to pedestrians and motorists. However, the city government claimed that only four billboards fell in its jurisdiction. Fifty-five billboards were declared dangerous and subsequently removed by the city government.

Sources said that recently the army and the city government authorities had a confrontation over the installation of a giant billboard under the FTC bridge. The army wanted to install the billboard and the city government opposed it, claiming that it had built the bridge and it was its right to generate revenue from it. However, the city government succumbed to the army pressure and withdrew its claim over the land and the hoarding was installed.

The District Officer of the city government’s local taxes department, Rehan Khan, told Dawn that the city government issued 150 permissions for billboards on rooftops and 110 on land sites. “We have no land site on Sharea Faisal. As per the city government’s policy, Sharea Faisal has been declared a signboard-free road. Before last year, we had 175 sites for billboards and we used to get over Rs12.5 million revenue. But keeping in view President Pervez Musharraf’s directives, we did not allow any advertiser to install billboards on the city government’s control portion of Sharea Faisal,” he added.

However, he conceded that besides the nine hoardings, some 55 hoardings had been bent and twisted by the storm. “Since Saturday night we have surveyed all the 260 billboards and removed 55 of them which were bent and stood precariously. As a precautionary measure, we asked the advertising companies to remove sheets or panel of their billboards till the weather conditions improve,” he said.

According to CDGK rules, formulated this year, no hoarding can be installed on a greenbelt and there is a limit on the size of billboards. Besides, the advertiser has to submit a stability certificate given by a qualified engineer and a site plan before installation of any hoarding.

For instance, the CDGK’s bylaws say that a 90-foot wide and 30-foot wide billboard can only be installed on a building that is at least ground-plus-five storeys high. But such huge billboards can be spotted on ground-plus-four buildings. Similarly, billboards cannot be erected on footpaths and on the central median of roads if they block motorists’ vision. Besides, there is a specific rule that since the footpaths are meant for pedestrians, a billboard must be erected seven feet above the footpath’s surface.

However, a random visit to the city would show that the bylaws on publicity hoardings are being openly flouted by the advertising companies apparently in connivance with officials of the city government’s local taxes department, who issue permission for billboards.

Admitting that illegal billboards have surpassed the number of legally ones, sources in the local taxes department say that although an advertising firm seeks permission for a single billboard for a particular site, it installs a number of billboards at different places, mentioning the number of the authorised billboard on all those billboards.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf, while taking a serious notice of the haphazard display of billboards in the city a couple of years back, had said that their mushroom growth presented an ugly sight to passers-by and that there must be a standard policy for billboards. Shortly afterwards, the Sindh governor had directed the then city nazim, Niamatullah Khan, to launch a campaign against illegal billboards.

However, the campaign against the illegal billboards which was aimed at achieving the goal of bringing uniformity in the billboards’ size and making a standard policy was initially started in the former district East, but it was left halfway, reportedly on account of the pressure exerted on the city government by influential people, including senior officers of police, the army, bureaucrats and even politicians.

Sources in the city district government say that the annual turnover from hoardings ranges between Rs3 billion and Rs4 billion and influential people belonging to almost every segment of society claim their share in it.

The sources say that the cantonment boards are granting permission for billboards even for those roads which are being maintained by the city government. In this regard, they mentioned Sharea Faisal, saying that although the Sindh government had notified Sharea Faisal as the city government’s road, cantonment boards are issuing permission for billboards for it.

Similarly, a number of roads in Gulistan-i-Jauhar are being built and maintained by the city government, but the cantonment board concerned has issued permission for erecting billboards on them.

Quoting the Military Cantonment Act, the sources say that there is no provision of publicity advertisements in the act, and hence the CBs cannot claim publicity advertisement tax in the limits falling under the jurisdiction of municipalities.

In this regard, they cite the example of Clifton’s Block 9, saying its land use is with the city government but building control is with the Clifton Cantonment Board.

Elaborating, the sources said that not only the cantonment boards but even SITE and the Pakistan Railways are allowing erection of billboards on the land falling under their jurisdiction although they, too, are not entitled to publicity advertisement tax.