| September 18, 2005 | Sunday | Sha'aban 13, 1426 |
Musical chairs
WHEN the newspapers in town splashed photographs of a giant billboard that had fallen on parked vehicles near the former Hotel Metropole, and this newspaper carried a disturbing story saying “Billboards pose growing threat”, it was surprising to hear this cynical caustic remark: “What will fall next in the city?”
It is reflection of the state of the public sentiment when it comes to having any belief (or faith) in the quality of construction work. One can stretch the construction work factor to almost everything else in this society. Roads, bridges, buildings, pavements, and culverts … the list is long. Yet no one cares. Almost a similar situation prevails in the domain of billboard advertising which is not just at many times and places a reflection of the awful absence of any sense of aesthetics of the advertising people, but also an indication of the unsafe ambience they are creating for citizens. What is significant is the scared perception that citizens have when it comes to the growing size of these billboards, lest they may collapse from the top. There is the added dimension that these billboards are encroaching upon pavements at many places. Pavements are generally narrow, and already encroached upon, denying to the pedestrian his right to walk safely.
The billboard that crashed onto a private car and other vehicles does make one contemplate several points. Who made that billboard? Will any damages be paid to those who have suffered? Who will pay the cost of the damage? Is there any penalty in law for those who cause this kind of loss? There are other questions too. Why have no names been mentioned? Commercial clout at work?
I find it more than strange, inexplicable rather, that none of the newspapers that carried the photograph mentioned any name with reference to the product or services that were being advertised on that billboard. One would even want to know whether there was anything substandard in the construction material that was used. Were there any specifications as to the material (like iron, cement, etc) used and processes that would be followed? A lack of scruples and standards could be a possibility.
Such aspects come to mind quite naturally. After all one learns that a couple of cars, two wheelers and rickshaws, were damaged. One would have imagined that the newspapers would detail as to where the responsibility lies. Or may be sooner than later, there will be made public information relevant to public interest.
After all given the conditions that we are familiar with, there is every reason to fear that this kind of a collapse can take place on a larger scale. Are the authorities alive to this threat? The warning about the storm and rains accompanied by gusty winds may not exist anymore, now; but that possibility does in the future. It is tomorrow that we are focusing on. In doing this, it is necessary to contemplate about accidental loss or injury to public, that are likely to follow when billboards crash.
There is certainly a need to examine the growth in size and number of billboards in Karachi. The city district government and the Sindh government need to look into this dimension of the swift-paced urbanization that is taking place. Urbanization or is it sheer commercialization? In today’s context an oft heard comment is that there are too many billboards and hoardings in Karachi. That it is giving to this city an ugliness, a kind of shabby look even. There is a need not only to reduce the size of the billboards and hoardings, but also to cut down their number. One recollects here a certain “aesthetics committee” that was formed in the city to regulate the advertising business. “Where has that committee gone?” one wonders. It is hoped that the city district government will look into this untamed manner in which billboards have surfaced all over Karachi.
One particular disadvantage that has perhaps not been fully appreciated is the way in which they have come up at traffic intersections. These billboards, hoardings, tri visions distract the driver’s attention. I wonder if there is any relationship between the fact that traffic intersections have so many billboards (and they are increasing steadily) and the hazardous driving that is evident at these points.
I have been informed that in the federal capital there is both public awareness and a drive to actually reduce the number of these billboards. But then the natural environs of Islamabad offer scenic options to its residents and visitors. Something that was not possible in Karachi, observed one Karachiite when he heard this. He added that in fact in Karachi it was a relief in many areas that instead of shabbily maintained private and public buildings there are these commercial sights. They provide an illusion of success and prosperity — a kind of escape into a world that doesn’t exist.
I was talking to some colleagues and one of them was particularly upset at the fact that heavy billboards had been erected on old buildings and blocks of apartments which was in fact posing a threat to the safety of the residents.
And then with a direct reference to this week’s billboard coming down, he asked whether it was safe to have these huge structures right next to car parking spaces, and lots. But that raises the logical question: where these hoardings should be allowed so that they may not pose any threat to people or property.
Frankly speaking given their present form and standard the answer would be to ensure that they exist nowhere. But that too would be another extreme. The answer lies in moderation, which may not be easy for our system to ensure. What is needed, one agrees with the unnamed town planner who spoke to Dawn on Thursday, is to have some ethics and rules for advertisers who operate in this field of outdoor advertising. The question that arises is who will take the steps that are essential, and given this recent collapse, urgently required.
Karachi has indeed been lucky that neither the storm nor the monsoons came this year. Last week’s rains were marginal, really.
The Sindh capital is threatened by the met office warnings of a cyclone or a storm or some such disaster from time to time. The religious amongst us see a symbolism in all these threats that never materialize.
Not just for the sake of aesthetics, but now for safety’s sake there is a need to reduce these billboards from such places, where if they were to come tumbling down there wouldn’t be a tragic loss of life and property.
As to the question about ensuring quality of building material and construction, that is difficult for anyone to answer with certainty. Empty promises we can always make, dear reader.
LOTACRACY is a bad word, if a word at all, and you promised yourself never to use it. But it’s funny that your locally-concocted, unbranded software should not single it out as a foreign word that does not exist in the English language. Proof that someone has worked hard to customize the computer, today’s idiot box, to what we in this country are comfortable with. The word looks and sounds as ungainly as its connotations and indeed those practising it. But what to do? How else can you explain the kind of rush there is on switching political loyalties, if not by using that despicable word?
The latest round of musical chairs began with Haji Hanif of the PML-N, the erstwhile city president of the Nawaz League, who bid farewell to what is now a ‘loser’ party. The next day, the Pirachas of Sargodha, the family of former PPP finance minister Ehsanul Haq, followed suit by leaving the People’s Party after an affiliation of 35 years. Not that the two were not rewarded for their stints in the respective parties; it is perhaps such privileges that one becomes accustomed to over a period of time and cannot do without when one’s party falls on bad days. Like they say, one is never out of a choice.
This government definitely has a ‘pro-choice’ stance on politics as opposed to a ‘pro-life’ one, that is, a life of dignity and moral integrity. The casualty in all this nauseating politicking is none other than good governance that was promised by Gen Musharraf when he seized power six years ago. The team he has gathered around him today comprises many those whom he had discredited and held responsible for abetting all the evil that was being done to the country under the corrupt Sharifs and Ms Bhutto.
The government’s pro-choice stance, like that on calling or not calling corrupt politicians to book, applies only to those sitting in the opposition and wishing to switch loyalties. When it comes to the ruling party’s own henchmen who do wish to change sides, the sword of accountability comes crashing down on them. The erstwhile Punjab sports minister Naeemullah Shahani is the pertinent case in point. He resigned from the PML because his opponents led by the provincial jails’ minister Saeed Akbar, also belonging to the ruling party, were allegedly favoured by the government to rig local polls in his home, Bhakkar, district.
Because Mr Shahani took the extreme step of leaving the party in protest, a file containing a charge sheet, including allegations of misappropriation of funds and other corrupt practices, was made available to the media only the day after the minister quit. If this were another country, those in power now would be scared of what lay in store for them when they were booted out. Not here. Instead, attempts are being made to strengthen the institution of lotacracy, so that its practitioners are never found on the wrong side of the fence with the ruling establishment.
THE tragic saga of Sonia Naz continues, with no end in sight to her troubled circumstances. She has not taken her plight to the international media, to New York, Toronto or London, which seems to be the president’s pet peeve these days; yet justice eludes her. No word of sympathy has come from the president, the prime minister or anyone in high office who would help her as much as register a case against her tormentors. The reason: an NGO led by a troublesome woman lawyer has now taken over her case.
The press conference called by the lady in distress at the city’s press club this week did little besides bringing a bad name to Lahore’s press corps. Some of the colleagues, ostensibly sharing Gen Musharraf’s views of what a rape can do for a woman as opposed to what it does to her, took to grilling her in most absurd and graphic terms. It is precisely this kind of attitude towards a rape victim that makes violence against women a Pakistan-specific problem and not part of the greater global problem, as the president is at pains to explain to a very sceptical world.
The state, society and now sections of the media have become party to the crime by being defensive on the issue. The tolerance shown here to perpetrators of crime against a wronged woman is unmatched. Perhaps that’s why Pakistan has an image problem on that score and perhaps that’s why we are singled out for censure at international forums.
There is an unmistakable omniscient streak in our rulers that causes this country as well as Pakistanis living abroad much embarrassment when they are confronted by international media. The president’s remark to an American media organ to the effect that getting raped in Pakistan is a sure way for many women of securing a foreign visa and riches should make us all hang our heads in shame. This, the general said without reflecting on why so many Pakistanis, and women at that, should want to leave their country for foreign lands.
A group of women’s organizations in Karachi protested against the outrageous assumption, while those in Lahore showed a more patriotic attitude by ignoring the remark. It is this kind of apathy on the part of civil society that also goes into condoning violence against women.
SO the Tollinton Market has been rebuilt and refurbished. That’s one city landmark that has been saved from extinction. Built in 1864 as a temporary building to house the first-ever Punjab agricultural and industrial exhibition, the market soon showed the potential of becoming a permanent landmark. Thus, it was decided not to dismantle it. The architectural treasures in the form of many colonial-built houses in GOR-I were not half as lucky. A similar fate now awaits the Mayo Gardens estate, where pure greed is driving the railway authorities to deface and commercialize the spacious colonial bungalows which should be declared a national heritage.
Plans are now afoot to hand the Tollinton Market over to the Lahore Museum to create a permanent city exhibition there. This is just as well. It would serve the city and its few remaining craftsmen and artisans well to house a craft gallery in the refurbished building. Living artisans can then be invited here from across the country to come and display their work. Lahore Museum does not offer such a facility on its existing premises.
The city can also use a permanent visual art gallery in the public sector. This would surely help the young and upcoming artists to display their work here without being exploited by a handful of private galleries which are mostly out to make money. — OBSERVER