THE fight against billboards in Karachi is not yet over, despite the welcome absence of visual cacophony on some city streets.

Last month, the Supreme Court had ordered that the law against commercialisation of public amenity spaces — which include roads, footpaths, bridges etc — be upheld and that billboards installed under any licence or lease on public spaces and properties in the city be taken down latest by June 30.

The three-member bench had also ordered that amendments be made to relevant by-laws in order to safeguard citizens’ rights.

For the beleaguered residents of Karachi who have helplessly watched the city’s parks and thoroughfares fall prey to the naked greed of the civic authorities who make fortunes from outdoor advertising sales, the directive was a much-needed and welcome intervention.

The elite, in their capacity as advertisers, also share responsibility for the destruction of the city’s built environment. The unsightly jungle of billboards on the cityscape poses several hazards; one of these was brought home on Wednesday when a huge hoarding collapsed on shanty homes during the rains.

But naked greed does not give up so easily. The court’s order has only been implemented partially, that too on some of the arteries of the city, whereas other routes continue to sport multiple hoardings.

Moreover, even in the case of the hoardings that have been removed, their infrastructure is still very much intact.

Clearly, interested parties are biding their time for the ‘storm’ to pass after which it will be business as usual.

The Supreme Court must not allow these mercenary elements — who can be found in all the district municipal corporations and the cantonment boards, particularly those in the city’s more affluent south — to pull wool over its eyes.

It must reiterate that the law be upheld so that hoardings — whether on public or private buildings — do not violate citizens’ rights in any way and that every vestige of their display infrastructure is removed so as to comprehensively do away with this menace.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2016