PESHAWAR, Feb 6: The youth wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami has set a deadline for the local administration to remove women's pictures from all signboards and billboards in the city by Feb 15 or they themselves would remove them.

The warning was issued by Peshawar President of Shabab-i-Milli Abdul Qadir during the Kashmir Day rally held in Qissakhwani bazaar here on Saturday.

Speaking to the participants of the rally, Mr Qadir criticized the local administration for, what he claimed, giving a free hand to commercial concerns to violate Islamic values of society by not stopping them from displaying women's pictures on billboards at public places.

He warned that if the local administration did not remove those signboards and billboards displaying women's picture, they would do it themselves. If the law and order situation was created, the administration would be responsible for it, he added.

"We will not let the Shabab-i-Milli activists take the law in their hands and remove signboards and billboards," said Senior Superintendent of Police (operations) Abid Ali.

"Shabab-i-Milli belongs to JI, which is the main component of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, and if the NWFP government issue any instructions regar-ding removal of women'spicture from the signboardsand billboards, we will follow the orders," the SSP told Dawn. But it would be more appropriate if the NWFP government held negotiations with the multi-national companies and took a proper decision on the issue, he opined.

The Shabab-i-Milli had torn down many signboards and billboards of local and multinational companies on Grand Trunk and Khyber Roads during the self-styled campaign against obscenity on June 14, 2003.

After Shabab-i-Milli's action, these local and multinational companies avoided to have any picture of women on the signboards.

Even the cinema owners had stopped displaying any picture of female actress on their billboards.

Interestingly, a multinational company of beverages then started writing the 99 names of Allah Almighty with the name of the product to win favour of the Shabab-i-Milli.