Only small billboards be installed on buildings, orders Iftikhar Shallwani

Karachi Administrator and Commissioner Iftikhar Ali Shallwani has directed the relevant authorities make sure small-sized billboards are installed only on buildings and in the city.

For the city’s beautification and to safeguard the rights of the pedestrians, no billboards should be set up on footpaths, directed the commissioner on Friday.

In a meeting with a delegation of the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) led by Zubair Chaya, he announced that the roundabouts would be allotted for marketing after an auction.

“The business community have an important role in the country's development and we want their advice for the works as well,” he said. KATI President Saleem uz Zaman and former president Shaikh Umar Rehan were among the meeting participants.

The administrator said they were taking measures to uplift the road infrastructure of the industrial areas. “We will have no issue if the present allottees want to get back the roundabouts after the auction,” he said, adding that roundabouts would be auctioned for a period of one year.

He said the industrialists and the businessmen were respectable for them as “they provide jobs to the people and play a key role in the country's economy”.

He said their issues would be resolved on a priority basis. The delegation requested Shallwani to name Korangi 3000 Road after former Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry president SM Muneer for his services. The administrator accepted their request and said that the services rendered by all such people should be acknowledged.

Shallwani said the size of all signboards would be same and that huge-sized signboards at footpaths were violating the rights of pedestrians as well destroyed the pavements. The administrator said the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation was taking all-out measures to uplift the infrastructure and make betterment in the city despite having limited resources.

“We are also removing illegal constructions in different parts of the city to save the beauty of Karachi,” he added. He hoped that the industrialists and the business community would support the local administration.