KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to remove within a week all hoardings and signboards installed in the city which do not conform to the prescribed guidelines.

A two-judge bench of the SC headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali fixed Aug 26 as the deadline for the removal of all such outdoor advertisement boards.

The bench that included Justice Amir Hani Muslim was hearing a petitionoftheKarachiCantonment Board against the Sindh High Court`s order that had nullified the excessive advertisement tax imposed by the board on private outdoor advertisement boards.

Meanwhile, the SC became irked by the absence of several relevant officers of the federal, provincial and local land control authorities who were earlier ordered to appear before it with detailed and comprehensive reports regarding the issuance of licences for hoardings.

The bench issued show-cause notices to the station commandersof the Faisal, Malir and Korangi Creek cantonments, Civil Aviation Authority and the Defence Housing Authority to explain reasons for not filing their reports.

One of the bench members remarked that different agencies were issuing licences for hoardings` installation to raise funds, although it largely endangered people`s lives.

During the previous hearing the bench had expressed extreme displeasure over the lethargic attitude of the authorities in filing their responses on the matter. The federal law officer told the judges that he had written a letter to all federal agencies to file their comments that who of them had permitted the installation of outdoor advertisement hoardings in their jurisdictions.

According to the KMC, there were as many as 17 agencies which permitted the installation of hoardings in the city.

However, only representatives of the Pakistan Coast Guards, the Karachi Port Trust and the Pakistan Railways appeared before the court during the previous and the instant hearings.