EBOLA, dengue, congo, naegleria fowleri… These diseases scare the living daylights out of us. Don’t they? Suddenly a lesser used word ‘quarantine’ is back in our daily usage of words. What we need to do, while totally understanding the lethal effects of these illnesses, is to make things sound less horrific, like what we used to do in the ‘60s. For example, on Nov 2, 1964 the commissioner of Karachi, Roedad Khan, laid the foundation stone for Ghamar Ispahani recreation hall for lepers. It’s said that the idea was to help the inmates of Manghopir’s 68-year-old hospital to relax and hope for a better future. Not a bad idea at all. Does the hall still exist, the question arises, though?

Those were the days when the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) was functioning. So were the hearts and minds of Pakistan Railways’ officials. On Nov 3, the Pakistan Western Railway administration named the last station on the KCR in Kharadar after the Quaid-i-Azam’s birthplace, Wazir Mansion. The notification said it did so in memory of the father of the nation, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Before that, the station was known just as Kharadar.

Speaking of Mr Jinnah, that week his brave sister Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah was quite busy. It was understandable: she was contesting a presidential election against a powerful military man General Ayub Khan. On Nov 4, Ms Jinnah visited four polling stations (Haqqani Chowk, Lawrence Road, Nazimabad and Lalukhet) with some important members of the Combined Opposition Parties (COP). She urged the people of those constituencies to stand up boldly for their rights and not to be discouraged.

Not just that, five days later, Ms Jinnah issued a statement addressing voters in the eastern wing of the country. She appealed to them that they vote for COP candidates. She argued that any other course would be disastrous as democracy had fallen victim to a well-planned dictatorship; therefore it’s the duty of the people to stay united. Sad, Ms Jinnah’s words, nay appeal, wasn’t paid heed to. And the KCR too has ceased to exist.

Despite the political goings-on, the contours of Pakistan’s foreign policy seemed to have already taken shape. On Nov 6, the director-general for the ministry of external affairs, Agha Shahi, delivered a lecture at the Department of International Relations, University of Karachi. His topic was ‘National interest and foreign policy’.

Mr Shahi touched upon many things during his talk one of which was the reasons for Pakistan’s entering into western pacts. He pointed out that at that point in time (‘60s) Pakistan had only 25 tanks compared to India’s two brigades of tanks designed to attack Pakistan. As a result, Pakistan had to ally itself with countries so that its defence capabilities and economic situation could improve.

Come to think of it, things haven’t changed on many fronts. For example, on Nov 7, the Karachi Union of Journalists passed a resolution in which it ‘regretted’ that while working journalists were standing up for a large measure of press freedom, many editors and publishers of newspapers were not cooperating with them.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2014