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Political graffiti appears on beautified Karachi walls
Graffiti scrawled across artwork done on walls near Civic Centre. The walls had been painted as part of a reclamation campaign under the ‘I Am Karachi’ initiative.
KARACHI: If you want to get to know Karachi, drive around the city and observe its walls. For these walls have voices of their own – political opinions, religious views and even contact details of spiritual healers who have the power to solve all your problems.
For the past few months, however, the city was trying to carve a new image for itself; by reclaiming these walls. Messages of peace and unity and stenciled art replaced the ugly, haphazardly scrawled graffiti. Brighter colours and images of birds and flowers brought out smiles on the faces of citizens. Deep down, though, the skeptics knew it was all too good to be true.
On Sunday, the social media flooded with images of defaced walls that had until a day earlier, carried messages of peace. Political graffiti had been scrawled hurriedly across the artwork on these walls near Civic Centre. What followed was the usual slander, the blame-game and the accusations being levelled against the alleged perpetrators.
After all, these walls had been painted by citizens as part of a reclamation campaign under the ‘I Am Karachi’ initiative. The hue and cry ultimately seems to have paid off as a party leader offered help and compensation to restore the art.
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