DON’T be surprised by the headline. After all, Field Marshal Ayub Khan did rule this country for quite a while. Democracy and diplomacy have seldom got along. Democracy is to do with the will of the people of the land and diplomacy deals with the government’s maneuvering to safeguard its interests. So why should it surprise us when roads are named after our leaders, elected or otherwise?

On May 12, 1965 this newspaper ran a brief but significant news item on its Karachi city pages, which was apparently a report on Africa being a potential market for Pakistani goods. There was a member of the Rotary Club by the name of F. Hashim. He had been to East Africa on a month-long visit. On his return to Pakistan on May 11, he issued a statement in which he claimed that there was tremendous goodwill for Pakistan among Africans, and the region was a potential market for Pakistani goods. The reason that he dished out for the “goodwill” claim was that Africans had a “better understanding of President Ayub’s dynamic foreign policy”. They had even named a road in Mombasa after him. Now, the interesting thing would be to know whether that road has been renamed. It’s an act of diplomacy, you never know.

The one surprising thing, especially for the generations that grew up in, or after, the 1970s, is that in the ‘60s Karachi had liquor stores. However, they were not there just like that. They had to abide by certain regulations. On May 11, the director of excise and taxation department Karachi issued an order that all the liquor shops in the city (foreign and local), including toddy shops, refreshment rooms, and bars, would remain closed during the first 10 days of Moharram. And the director’s orders were complied with.

On the subject of orders, did you know that in 1964 an Economy of Food Order was put in place? And it was enforced with missionary zeal. On May 14 (1965) the additional director of food Karachi, Ahmed Jan Rajput, held a meeting with 14 hoteliers to explain to them the provisions of the order. At the end of the meeting he asked his department to conduct surprise raids at “western-style” hotels to check if the Economy of Food Order was being violated at events held on a day-to-day basis there.

Let’s shift gears now. In the field of art and letters, the week had one prominent event. It was to do with the great poet and revolutionary Maulana Hasrat Mohani. Yes, someone we seem to have forgotten. On May 13, glowing tributes were paid to Hasrat Mohani at an event held at New Era School Nazimabad to commemorate his 14th death anniversary. It was presided over by Maulana Ihtishamul Haq Thanvi, who spoke on the towering personality of the poet and his contribution to literature.

The word towering reminds you of the many peaks that we have in our region. One of them is Kunyang Chish peak. On May 12, a mountaineering expedition from Japan’s Kyodo Alpine League arrived in Karachi to scale Kunyang in the Karakorum Range. It was an eight-member mountaineering team, two of whom Sukanoto and Takada came early, while six others were supposed to join them later in the month just before the start of the expedition.

While we are on the subject of mountaineering, spare a thought for those who recently lost their lives in a massive earthquake while trying to scale Mount Everest.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2015

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