LAHORE, Dec 6: Multiple about-turns and a lack of coherent policy for the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) – the department in charge of parks and outdoor advertising in Lahore – has meant that senior officials are unaware of whether the city’s A and A + grade advertising sites will also be removed.

On Friday, the PHA and the Lahore Development Authority announced they had removed over 200 boards from the city, in compliance with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s deadline of Dec 25.

PHA spokesman Javed Shaida said he was unaware whether the advertisers’ down-payments would be returned or not, and whether Friday’s announcement of a new war-on-billboards would apply to the A grade category – the most expensive billboard sites in the city.

Chairman of the Chief Minister’s Taskforce on Horticulture Mustafa Kamal was also not certain whether all existing boards would have to be removed or made to comply with stricter regulations regarding their dimensions, while Director General Nadeem Aslam was not available for comment.

The PHA is currently on its third director general since elections in February brought in a government. Nadeem Aslam, the incumbent since Nov, replaced Capt Rao Iftikhar (retired) who arrived in September, himself replacing Irfan Elahi who left the spot in August.

The PHA’s move to remove all billboards in the city, on the notice of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, comes only a month after the last round of auctions which saw hundreds of billboard sites sold in the B and C grade category.

On June 28, PHA officials proudly announced they had increased the amount of revenue generated by Rs165.8million on last year’s figures.

At the time, the move was deeply unpopular with Punjab Outdoor Advertising Association, which viewed the auctions (and particularly the fact that the initial bidding prices were doubled or tripled on last years’ prices) as an attempt at profiteering at their expense.

But PHA officials, included members of the specially instituted Chief Minister’s Taskforce on Horticulture headed by Mustafa Kamal and convened by Khwaja Imran Raza, principal staff officer to the chief minister, hailed the auctioning of advertising sites as the most fair and independent method of selling advertising, speaking to Dawn on Oct 18.

On March 26, the PHA was forced the retract permission it had granted to advertisers to place giant liquid crystal display (LCD) advertising screens around town, costing advertisers their $250,000 investments and leaving the city scarred with unused screens, as well as forcing the PHA into costly legal battles with advertisers.

The PHA’s latest experiment, announced on Wednesday, is to replace billboard advertising with corporate sponsored gardening on major roads, an idea it has termed “visual gardens”.