A closer look at Pakistan’s signature truck art

Special A closer look at Pakistan’s signature truck art
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Updated 14 November 2019
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A closer look at Pakistan’s signature truck art

A closer look at Pakistan’s signature truck art
  • It takes several weeks to completely decorate a truck
  • Truck art allows us to project a positive image of our country, says an artist

ISLAMABAD: The tradition of decorating trucks in Pakistan is long and colorful. Artist use everything from metal, wood, jangling chains and shiny objects to decorate their trucks, making this unique form of art popular across the world.
Truck drivers also ask the artists to paint images of different personalities, including celebrities and political figures, animals, flowers and landscapes. Similarly, artists mainly work with contractors who make deals with truck owners.
60-year-old Khurshid Khan from Mardan city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province migrated to Islamabad in 1986. Since then, he has been painting trucks that can be seen on highways and roads across the country.
Khan said he recently sent a decorated truck to Saudi Arabia.
“Malik Ibrar, a Pakistani businessman, from Peshawar paid us seven million rupees to paint and decorate a truck that could be parked at a family restaurant in Al-Azizia [in the Kingdom],” he told Arab News, adding that 12 artists completed Ibrar’s truck in two months’ time.
70-year-old Muhammad Saleem is also associated with this profession for the last 45 years. “I started doing this to earn some money, but with the passage of time I devoted [my life] to this profession. I have decorated hundreds of trucks,” Saleem said, adding that truck art allowed him to project “Pakistan’s positive image to the world.”