The civic agency has failed to devise a policy to regulate commercial buildings, billboards and hoardings which have cropped up in the rural areas of Islamabad.

The billboards, which are installed on the rooftops of shopping plazas in the rural part of the capital such as Bhara Kahu, can fall on roads and create problems for the citizens in case of a windstorm or rain.

The commercial buildings in the area have been constructed without fulfilling buildings bylaws, as majority of them have been constructed without allocating space for parking area.

“The billboards are posing a risk to the public lives and the authorities concerned should take notice of the matter,” said Mohammad Rafiq, a resident of the area.

The Municipal Corporation Islamabad (MCI) mayor and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman Sheikh Ansar Aziz said the corporation had nothing to do with the installation of billboards in rural areas, as they fall in the jurisdiction of union councils.

“But I agree there should be a uniform policy for the installation of billboards and hoarding, particularly about their sizes. And we are working on it,” said Sheikh Ansar Aziz.

He said the billboards on the rooftop of commercial buildings in urban areas had been removed. He said the MCI had been working on framing rules and regulations to deal with not only billboards and hoarding but also commercial buildings, so that the union councils could generate revenue in terms of taxes.

“In urban area, we are following the policy of the CDA until we come up with our own policy on billboards and other advertisement materials,” he said.

The first local government elections in the capital were held in November 2015 but so far the MCI has not formulated any policy in this regard.

“The installation of billboards on buildings is dangerous. In case of a mishap, these billboards can cause a big loss in terms of life and property,” said Masood Khan, a resident of Bhara Kahu.

Buildings in the rural area are constructed without fulfilling the by-laws as the CDA has never made any attempt to regulate the construction activities in Zone-IV, comprising the Islamabad park area and the rural periphery wedged between Murree Road towards the north and Lehtrar Road towards the south.

It covers Bhara Kahu, Bani Gala, Mohara Noor, Jadiot, Tamar Sihala and other areas. Being on the seismic fault-line, Islamabad is prone to frequent earthquakes.

However, the MCI and CDA have yet to pay any heed towards regulating buildings and the mushrooming billboards. Before the formation of the MCI, Islamabad was divided into urban and rural areas with the CDA focusing only on the urban area and the capital administration dealing with the rural part with a limited role.

The ICT administration used to focus mainly on civic development such as streets and small roads in rural area as it had no role in regulating the commercial buildings.

In November last year, the CDA board decided to make by-laws for the regulation and construction of commercial buildings stand astride major roads in Zones IV and V.

The civic agency took that decision after several high-rise buildings cropped up in the area.

However, despite the board decision, the authority has failed to come up with proper rules and regulations.

It is said that after approval of the by-laws, the planning wing and building control section of the CDA will regulate commercial buildings in rural area while the MCI, through the UCs, will look after the affairs of signboards/billboards etc.

“After the formation of the MCI, the rural-urban divide has ended and now we have to regulate all buildings/billboards and hoardings, etc., across the capital,” said retired Captain Shahbaz, the director of the District Municipal Authority which falls under the administrative control of the MCI.

“As far as the city area is concerned, we are not giving permission to anyone for installing billboards and hoarding. In the rural area, I have no idea whether the UCs concerned are dealing with the subject or not,” he said, adding the MCI was working on formulating a uniform policy to deal with the subject for entire Islamabad.

Many believe that most of the owners of commercial buildings, without getting any permission from the UCs concerned, have installed the billboards on the rooftops of their buildings in Zone IV.

“The company which has installed the billboards on my plaza has taken permission from the authorities concerned,” said Abdul Salam, the owner of a plaza in Bhara Kahu.

Despite repeated attempts, the chairman of Union Council Bhara Kahu, Raja Wahad, could not be contacted for comments. However, a shopkeeper in the area said if all the billboards and signboards in Bhara Kahu were legal and paying taxes, the union council should have millions of rupees. When contacted, Deputy Mayor Zeeshan Naqvi said a uniform policy on billboards was the need of the hour.

“The giant hoarding and billboards always pose risk to the citizens, as they can fall during windstorms. We are making a policy to fix the size and rate for billboards,” he said.”

He said some dangerous hoarding and billboards had already been removed from various parts of the city. Mr Naqvi said funds generated in terms of taxes from the billboards would be spent by the UCs on development activities.

When contacted Member Planning CDA Asad Mehboob Kayani said recently CDA had decided to regulate all housing societies operating in Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2017