JHANG City News

Security threat
Billboards not removed despite Home Department directives
From Our Correspondent
JHANG: A local official, allegedly posted on a key post on the recommendations of political bigwigs, is seemingly defying the Punjab government orders as billboards with fixed stairs has not been removed despite the directives issued by the Home Department.
For implementing the National Action Plan at the ground level, the Home Department had taken notice of the security agencies’ reports and issued orders for immediate removal of huge billboards installed around sensitive buildings of the city. The directives were not only conveyed to the TMA’s administrator but also appeared in media but to no avail.
Following the Sunday’s terrorist attacks on churches in Lahore, it is once again observed by the security personnel that billboards are still in place along the boundary walls of a top missionary school and the church.
Sources say most publicity firms are being run by the TMA officials under aliases (fictitious names) and that is why the provincial government’s orders have fallen on deaf ears.
The boundary walls of educational institutions, churches and other sensitive buildings situated near district courts have been raised up to eight feet but huge iron polls with stairs made this activity useless, providing easy access to anyone for entering the premises. The repeated directives issued by the Home Department are ignored by the TMA officials as they enjoy political backing, he added.
A TMA official, on the condition of anonymity, confirmed about the directives regarding removal of billboard but the administrator, who hails from the constituency of those ruling Punjab, is silent on the matter.
This scribe also tried to get version from the TMA administration/ Additional District Collector Babar Bashir but he was reluctant to comment on the issue and did not attend his mobile phone.