Hoardings: aesthetically displeasing

THE menace of large-sized hoardings and advertisement boards has turned the city into an ugly place. Besides ruining its scenic beauty and damaging its architectural features, it has created traffic hazards and insecurity for citizens.

The Tehsil Municipal Administration (city), taking undue advantage of the power of imposing various fees and taxes, has virtually ignored its basic functions to provides civic amenities to the inhabitants, enhance scenic beauty, remove ugly spots, ensure smooth flow of traffic, protect privacy of inhabitants and preserve historical monuments.

A round of the city clearly indicated that the TMA adopted an ill-conceived policy of generating financial resources in violation of its basic charter of duties, giving a free hand to the private tax collection agencies to carry on their activities in return for a settled share to the TMA functionaries.

Currently, there are 136 spots having heavy traffic, commercial activity, and great hustle and bustle. On all such points, a firm has already secured the rights of publicity in advance with the alleged connivance of TMA officials concerned, and the contractor has installed huge hoardings asking the parties to enter into an agreement with the firm to get their publicity material installed on them.

In line with the spirit of good designing and appropriate locationing of hoardings at important points, it is obligatory on the TMA to notify such spots itself after proper survey and selection of sizes of hoardings according to specific locations.

Unfortunately, the TMA has not notified such points since it started functioning, and the defunct Faisalabad Municipal Corporation can also be blamed for the fault. But the trend of attracting customers and buyers has in the recent past assumed a new dimension due to competition among multinational companies as well as some national industrial organization to excel each other in producing bigger and taller pictures with eye-catching scenes.

Due to the indifference of the TMA and the morbid propensity of the publicity firms to take undue advantage of their contracts, the contractor is exploiting the opportunity to the maximum and allowing multinational companies on payment of fees of their choice, to install giant-size boards, without consideration of appropriateness of location and size.

A number of huge billboards are being installed by local, national and multinational companies which obtained ‘No Objection Certificates’ against the criteria laid down by the TMA itself.

A majority of the dangerous sign-boards and hoardings have been installed in the D-Grounds, Satiana Road, Jhal Road, Abdullahpur, Katchery Road, Narwala Road and other main roads of the city.

A number of boards have been installed close to the high-tension electricity lines which could prove to be dangerous any time. Similarly, scores of boards installed on inter-city routes are creating traffic problems and obstructing view. But no action is being taken against the agency or persons concerned.

A number of boards have been installed at the cost of architectural and historical importance of famous buildings which was a great threat to the cultural heritage of the city. The ill-conceived policy of TMA for displaying boards without any check has disfigured the look of the city.

According to TMA bye-laws, three types of advertisements are allowed.

TMA Taxation Officer Nasir Cheema conceded that although every intending advertizer was required to obtain an NOC for signboards and hoardings, the taxation branch only ensured that the publicity contractor did not create difficulties for the advertizer in the selection of sites.

He also admitted that factors of smooth traffic flow and beauty of view were not carefully being considered.

Nasir Cheema admitted that the TMA had not standardized the design of boards for shops. Everyone is allowed to install boards according to his own discretion. The contract for advertisement has been given to one Muhammad Zulfiqar, at Rs20.5 million for the current fiscal year. But independent analysts are of the opinion that the TMA has not done its homework for fetching the potential amount by conducting a comprehensive survey of the city for such a contract. They are further of the opinion that whosoever hangs any signboard, displays hoarding or installs a large-size board in any manner, the shopkeepers, private educational institutions, hospitals and workshops are required to pay for the hoarding and signboard charges to the TMA (city) on the basis of size of the boards.

The TMA has an independent building branch headed by an architect who is also responsible for formulating criteria for installing and displaying boards and hoardings, and for protecting the scenic beauty of the city. This branch has never been seen in action.

For installation of publicity boards like neon signs, tri-vision and electric boards, the TMA has divided the city into categories A, B and C and, according to the schedule of rates of publicity, Rs35/- per square feet has been approved for A category while Rs 25/- and Rs 13/- per square feet for categories B and C, respectively, were fixed on annual basis.

Likewise, for hoarding corrugated signboards and billboards, Rs 20/- per square feet per annum, for A category while Rs 15/- and Rs 9/- have been sanctioned for B and C categories.

However, the ground realities are different as the contractor is charging over and above the fixed rates due to the patronage of the ruling group which is allegedly receiving huge amounts as its share.

Under Section 11 of the Advertisement Bye-Laws (Part-II), it has been made obligatory that the advertizers could not install, hang or affix publicity hoardings on city roads which cause impediment in the traffic flow or danger to the motorists. Yet it was never implemented by the TMA.

TMA officials and the contractor have also failed to implement Section 3 of the Municipal Notice Boards of the Advertisement Bye-Laws in which it was clearly said that no one can install boards, banners, posters and other publicity material within the notified TMA limits.

It has also been made mandatory for companies and persons to install all hoardings and boards of uniform size and length and in a sequence so that they could not disfigure the beauty of the city. But there is not a single commercial or residential area where these conditions are being implemented. Ironically, the union councils and elected councillors who are required to preserve the rights of the citizens seem either indifferent to or unaware of their duties.

Displaying wealth at marriage ceremonies

SOME of us have faithfully held onto the familiar theme of extravagance at our marriages and its related ceremonies only to cite the example of how insensitive can be the richer sections of this society to avoid a vulgar display of wealth and prosperity. In a society like ours, this display could easily be regarded as a kind of crime, argue some discerning citizens who have been even openly protesting about this wasteful side of our lives.

And these people have been emphasizing that while this attitude of commercialism is manifest even when the marriage is being planned, and the details between two families are being sorted out vis-a-vis finance and dowry etc, a very public display of wasteful styles is evident from the conventional wedding cards — valima cards, mehndi cards and other ceremonial cards. It is a merry package with many families, and a follow-up takes place with the publicity that is sought, and achieved through the print media in particular.

One is focusing on the marriage theme keeping in mind that the Law and Justice Commission has recommended the government to enforce the law aimed at curbing wasteful expenditure at weddings and valimas. A thought goes out to the occasional welcome proposals and protests that are evident to some other forms of pomp, extravagance, arrogance and waste in Pakistani society.

And it makes one wonder whether meaningful public opinion will crystallize and express itself on those areas of our lives too.

But, let us remain focused on the wedding waste theme. Of course, there are such terrible people, rich in most of the cases, who contend that it is their personal matter and that society has nothing to do with how much they spend, and how they go about displaying their prosperity. They believe not in simplicity, modesty and moderation. They do not realize that in their grandiose manner of celebrating marriages, or even birthdays and anniversaries and other such occasions, they set poor examples for society, and make the lesser fortunate sections of society feel miserable.

I have mentioned wedding cards only. We will get to the menu and its variety and vulgarity later. The printers of wedding cards have never had it so good as now, and in fact there are such families where they have begun using the computer also to send out reminder cards, in addition to the fabulous and expensive cards that have already been sent out. It is disgusting to say the least, to see some of these cards, which have come a long distance from the days when we simply expressed our disappointment at the needless costs that were being incurred on wedding and valima cards. The disgrace is ignored!!

Let us see what the Law and Justice Commission has recommended: “The relevant laws about marriage ceremonies, including the serving of lavish meals, decorations, aerial firing, cracking of explosives, and exhibition of dowry, should be appropriately amended to provide serving of a single dish to a limited number of guests, not exceeding 300, in the valima and baraat functions.” It makes one think of the magical number 300, and how a manipulation of such numbers can and does take place in our system.

System — the marriage system. There are interestingly enough small scale industries that have been growing. Take the increasing world of the catering industry. It is huge, and it has vested interests in ensuring that all these customs and traditions that call for huge inflated expenditures are sustained. It is the world of biryani and qorma, and the canvass of culinary delight that the caterers want to make sure stays. Who cares what happens to society and to its moral fabric? Hasn’t one realized the extent to which families have to get indebted to get their children married, especially their daughters?

One would like to mention the challenges that have arisen, and the new complicated, frustrating contexts that have been created in the domain of arranged marriages in particular. One is strictly referring to the financial side of the picture. For example, how the bride or groom with the green card or the immigrant status in the West is a valued customer in the business of marriage bureaus, and assorted match-makers. Indeed, marriage bureaus are a thriving lot these days. Even online now!

One colleague who took a very serious and pessimistic view of the efforts to simplify marriages said that there was simply no chance of any law being truly effective for the majority of people at this point in time. It is a long drawn battle here too, as Pakistani society changes and realizes that this is a wasteful expenditure in view of the growing poverty and the rising costs of marriages. He referred to the cost of jewellery, gold in particular, and the cost of tailors, boutiques and so on. What he was actually pointing to was the cultural ambience that Pakistani society has at the moment and a manifestation of which are the huge marriage halls that exist on country-wide basis. This too is a big business and here too lobbyists in the name of tradition and heritage and those hollow dubious arguments insist that “our rich culture” must not be allowed to wither.

It is significant to note these marriage dinners that as a rule are also a waste of time for thousands of people on any given evening in the season, have in the past been hosted in defiance, and a tactful defiance at that. There are always contacts that work, influence that operates, and VIP presence that makes the law-enforcing people easily overlook the rules. There are all kinds of justifications on paper, and the funny (disgraceful) thing is that everybody at these occasions knows that the law is being flouted, but does nothing about it. They all enjoy the meal, and they all laugh at the rules, and they all blame society for being so hypocritical. Truly baffling, but true, all same. No one cares.

The Law and Justice Commission has also recommended “strict enforcement of the law so that there could be no ostentatious display of wealth through wasteful expenses and to enforce the ban on display or exhibition of dowry items during marriage functions.” It sounds good. It sounds too good to be true. Even the weakest understanding of how this society works, and moves (not forward?) will give signals that those who have the wealth do not have either the will or the awareness that what they are doing is grossly in bad taste. And doing damage to this society, already limping.

Dauntless doctor

I HAVE already made mention of Prof Dr Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal in one of my recent columns. I have known him since the days of my posting at the PAF Base, Sargodha, where I had to accompany my base commander who was to preside over a White Cane Day function. There I saw Prof Iqbal taking an active part in the proceedings.

Undaunted by losing his sight at the age of eight, Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal forged his way ahead in life and carved a place for himself in the field of education. Appearing as a private candidate at the matriculation examination, he passed it in the first division. Thereafter, he took the intermediate examination to stand second in his college and won a scholarship. Going ahead to graduate in the first division, with English literature as a subject, he again won a scholarship.

Later, he became the first blind person to get a master’s in English literature, securing the fifth position in the University and the first in Government College, Faisalabad. Sheikh Sahib did not stop at that; he went on to get a master’s in Urdu and M. Phil. (Iqbaliyat) from the Allama Iqbal Open University, topping the list of successful candidates. He also got a doctorate from the same university through his thesis, The Impact of British Poets on Allama Iqbal. “Ultimately, it was in 1968 that Dr Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal was appointed a lecturer at the Government College, Sargodha, the first blind person to achieve the distinction.

Prof Iqbal has varied interests. Besides working for the socio-economic rehabilitation of the blind he has a claim to journalism as well by having been the editor of the monthly, Sufaid Chari. However, he is better recognised as a poet and literary critic of Urdu. Besides four collections of poetry, he is probably the only one to have written about English poets in Urdu. At the moment I have before me his, John Keats: Sakhsiat aur Shairi, which, unfortunately, has been produced very poorly by a printing house of Sargodha.

In this book, Prof Iqbal has started by giving a detailed introduction to Keats. He was born in London on October 31, 1795 to well off parents, but when his father died at an early age, leaving behind four children. The family started facing financial problems. Things worsened when his mother married again only to be separated very soon. All this had a deep effect on the mind of young Keats who was the eldest in the family. But there was a bigger shock awaiting him. His mother contracted tuberclosis and the 15-year old had to look after her. She ultimately died in 1810.

Unable to continue his education, he took an apprenticeship with a surgeon but, at the same time, developed a taste for poetry. Soon he was published in journals and by the time he was 21, he had found a place in literary circles. In March, 1817, his first collection of poems was published but it was not well received. However, he continued writing poetry. Then his brother, Tom, fell victim to tuberclosis and died in 1818. Having remained in close contact with him during his last days, Keats also contracted the same disease.

Prof Iqbal has written in detail about the odes by Keats and his most well known poems, Endymion and Hyperion. Mention has also been made of his love affair with Fanny Brawne although he has not mentioned that he got engaged to her but kept it a secret.

One finds lyricism in John Keats but Prof Iqbal goes to discover attributes of drama in him which he thinks are akin to those of Shakespeare. He quotes what he said about Byron: He describes what he sees, I describe what I imagine; mine is the hardest task.

Dr Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal has also dealt at length with the letters written by Keats. He says his prose can well be compared with his famous contemporaries, Lawrence Sterne, Tobiaz George Smollette and Henry Fielding. His letters, according to Dr Iqbal, enjoy the same importance in English as Ghalib’s letters do in Urdu literature. He quotes from one of his letters to James Hessey in which he has referred to his critics:

“Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love for beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own work.”

This treatise by Prof Dr Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal shows his deep study of the romantic poets of English literature. But permit me for a few dispassionate words in the end. His work is commendable, no doubt, but I wish the author had paid more attention to his poem, La Belle Dame Sams Merci. In that he has dealt with the supernaturanal and in which one finds him in the spirit of a true romanticist. Why forget that it was his romanticism with grief, sorrow and suffering which gave Keats his universalty.

P.S. Prof Dr Iqbal has moved over to Lahore permanently and would be a regular at literary functions.—Ashfaque Naqvi

Lahore’s first ‘Company era’ businesses

ONCE the British had defeated the Sikhs in 1849 at Chillianwala Bagh near Gujrat, the Union Jack went up at the Lahore Fort. The Lahore Darbar ceased to exist. Rani Jindan and her family were effectively removed. The ‘Company’ era had started in Lahore.

As is true of all expending powers, business concerns come first, because that is the real intention. The military and the wars and the ‘heroes’ are all there to assist business interests. As we look at Lahore, it would be interesting to see how the British entered its business markets. The Anarkali Bazaar had yet to come up, and all development started from the base of British power, the cantonment. This was initially established in the Anarkali area. This area can be described as present day Anarkali Bazaar, old Anarkali up to the French military mission that we now know as the Civil Secretariat, Lower Mall outside Bhati Gate, which includes Rattigan Road, Government College and the Punjab University. It was here that the first business houses opened.

According to one account written in 1924, “Mr William Bell may be described as the pioneer of European business enterprise in Lahore. Apart from his timber trade with Kashmir and Chamba, of which Mr M. Ter Arrotoon was the originator, he set himself up as superintendent of the government printing press, left it and set up his own press, auction houses, booksellers shops, stationary shops, general stores.” He even set up tailoring shops and piano shops. William Bell, who also printed the Punjab Record, started all the beautiful old leather-bound books that we see with lawyers today. When Bell grew old, he retired to his impressive bungalow at the Lower Mall, and his son-in-law, J. J. Davis, took over and set up his business at Court Street. If you even today happen to drive on The Mall, in the YMCA Building you will see, at one corner, an old board that reminds us of the presence of J. J. Davis. His printing press grew in size and ended up becoming the ‘Civil & Military Press’. Their survival lay in doing government printing. The various businesses that William Bell set up, he sold to other European businessmen, who all developed them into thriving concerns.

But strange as it might seem, with the shifting of the Lahore Cantonment to Mian Mir, is where the big shops first opened. After they had established themselves, they all moved back to the ‘Anarkali’ area. Among the first shops in Mian Mir was the shop of Jamsetji and Sons, which was established in 1862. They ran a “general European store” as the expression went then, and sold wines and spirits, toys, ammunition. Initially, they even sold “black powder in flasks, percussion caps and bags of shots” as the flintlock era was still on. The old and original Jamsetji and Sons shop is on Sarwar Road next to the present day Zakir Tikka Shop. They opened a branch in the Commercial Building next to the old Tollinton Market. They built a beautiful house at the northern end of Lower Mall called ‘Rose Cottage’. This exquisite house was demolished to make way for the Government College Hostel.

The standard of tailoring irked the officers of ‘Company Bahadur’ as the East India Company was locally known. They encouraged the best tailors of London to move here. The very first to set up business was Messrs Philps & Co., which was situated at the present Nila Gumbad building at the corner. Among the three most prominent tailors of Regent’s Street in London to set up branches in Lahore were Messrs Clarke & Co., Messrs Adlard & Co. (which still exists in London), and Messrs Davidge & Brothers. Initially they felt secure at Mian Mir, but within a few years, they shifted to the Anarkali and Mall area. All of them did well. However, their method of doing business was very different from how tailoring is conducted today.

When a ‘gentleman’ wanted a suit tailored, it would normally be more than one suit. Strange as it might seem, getting “just one tailored” was the unacceptable thing to do. A message was left at the shop by the ‘gentleman’ and the European tailor, accompanied by a ‘bhangi’ would visit the house of the person concerned, have tea, and after social niceties would measure him up. The ‘bhangi’ would be carrying fabrics for shirts and undergarments. A complete array of orders had to be given to “dress and drape” a gentleman. It was almost like a mini social event in the life of a European. For this reason, tailors liked to get an official certification from as high an official as was possible. That, in many ways, determined the professional skills of the tailor. The local population also learnt these tailoring skills and tried to open up small shops in the lanes of Anarkali. The officers of the Company called them “Cheap Johns” and it was a social insult to be seen near such a shop.

Then there were the ‘professional photographers’. Among the first and most famous photographers of Lahore was a person by the name of Mr William Bartholomew. He originally lived in the Lahore Fort when the conquest of 1849 was completed and was an “apothecary”. He then became an ‘adviser’ to the Raja of Faridkot and moved his studio to Lower Mall. With his death his shop closed. But by then another photographer, Mr James Craddock, had moved from Simla to Lahore. He set up studio on the Lower Mall, for then the limits of The Mall were at the GPO crossing. With Craddock’s death the shop also closed. Much later another shop opened up at the same place by the name of S. Rollo & Co., with the grandfather of the last surviving Rollo being an apprentice. The old Mr Rollo died about 10 years ago, and his apprentice now runs the concern by the same name.

Also in 1872, the first ‘European’ chemist shop opened on the Lower Mall. This was called Richardson Chemist, which went on to be called Messrs Peake, Allen & Co. This shop managed to do well and then was named, as owners changed, as Messrs Plomer & Co., with the original Plomer shop being at The Pipals on the Lower Mall. Later it shifted to its present location opposite the Lahore High Court. This is one business that has never seen a downturn, and Plomer & Sons still remains a very viable and historic shop. In a way, this is probably the oldest ‘European’ shop of the Lahore that emerged with the British Raj, though I am ready to accept evidence of any older shop, as Jamsetji & Sons no longer functions in its original shape or calling. — Majid Sheikh