As Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) battle through banners, Parks and
Horticulture Authority (PHA) is unable to regulate the display of banners which
has officially been banned on the Mall and other major roads of the city,
Pakistan Today has learnt. The Mall is heavily polluted by an array of banners
that have been put up to advertise the PML-N rally on October 28, from Nasir
Bagh to Bhatti Chowk, and the PTI rally on October 30 in Minar-e-Pakistan,
following a lack of implementation of the ban. A senior official of PHA said it
appeared as if political parties were questing to achieve political glory by
attracting people to join their causes but neither did they consider the ban nor
did they consider how adversely it polluted the road. He said some of the
banners hanged through electric poles and traffic signals after last night’s
windstorm. Some had fallen on the road, dirtying it while most poles displayed
three to four banners which looked unsightly, he added.
In front of the Punjab Assembly, PML-N banners with pictures of Nawaz Sharif,
Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz bearing political slogans were seen. On the
other stretch of the road, PTI banners could be sighted in the proximity of the
Governor House.
Javed Jabbar, a resident of lower Mall, told Pakistan Today that the unsightly
banners were a cause of concern for citizens. He also noted that the
government’s promise to keep the Mall free from banners had not been fulfilled.