Groups of volunteers paint the walls with cheerful designs aimed at bringing some happiness and pride back to an often violent and chaotic city

karachi — For years Karachi’s walls have been spattered with the bloodstains of murder victims and scrawled with graffiti touting everything from sectarian hatred to quack cures for sexual problems.

Now a group of artists and volunteers are reclaiming the walls by painting them with cheerful designs aimed at bringing some happiness and pride back to an often violent, chaotic and corrupt city.

Karachi, Pakistan’s economic capital and biggest metropolis, has been swamped in recent years by a wave of extortion, murder and kidnapping — for religious, criminal, ethnic and political reasons.

Those behind the new project, called “Reimaging the walls of Karachi” hope that by taking art to the streets they can bring a more positive outlook for its 20 million inhabitants.

“We are working together and taking back the city by reclaiming the walls which are filled with hate graffiti,” artist Norayya Sheikh Nabi said while drawing an abstract of the city on a wall along a busy road.

Norayya, an art teacher at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, is one of 200 artists, artisans and labourers taking part in the project.

With help from the city authorities to get the permission they need, they aim to repaint walls in 1,600 different places — from warehouses to schools to flyovers and underpasses.

The scheme is being run by I Am Karachi, a charity working for the cultural, social and literary uplift of the city, backed by funds from the US Agency for International Development. Pakistan boasts some

AFP Art teacher Norayya Sheikh Nabi and her daughter Gaiti Ara give the final touches to a design on a wall in Karachi. —

AFP Artists and volunteers paint designs on a pillar of a flyover and a family looks at an art work on a wall on a commercial street in the port city. —