HOW did Karachiites celebrate Independence Day 50 years back?

Answer: by making top-drawer artists of the country to take part in the celebrations. And by top-drawer one doesn’t mean only popular artists, but those for whom epithets such as ‘legendary’ and ‘trailblazers’ could easily be used.

Sad, today Independence Day celebrations have become rather predictable presentations.

On the night of Aug 14, 1965 the Karachi Press Club, in collaboration with Radio Pakistan, organised a concert of light and classical music on its premises.

It was arranged to mark the country’s 18th Independence Day, and the celebrations continued for two days. It was a very well received programme attended by no fewer than 3,000 music enthusiasts and relayed live by Radio Pakistan.

A stellar lineup of musicians participated in the show. They included none other than the inimitable Roshan Ara Begum, the incomparable Ustad Khamisu Khan, Ustad Ali Khan, Ustad Allah Ditta and the king of ghazal singing Mehdi Hasan.

All the classical singers earned a hearty applause from the discerning audience, and Mehdi Hasan, who sang several ghazals, was equally appreciated.

Apart from that, Rubina from Hyderabad crooned out a few kafis and Dilara Hashim presented verses by the one and only Nazrul Islam which, according to the media, touched the heart of every music lover. Wow! Talk about the dream team of vocalists!

Earlier, the day (Aug 14) in the city began with the fervour as the Maadir-i-Millat Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah, commissioner of Karachi Syed Darbar Ali Shah and chairman of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation M. Ziauddin Khan placed wreaths on the mazaar of the founder of the nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

The commissioner and the provincial minister for information and law Ghulam Nabi Memon also attended the Karachi Press Club concert.

Actually, though it might not be recognised that way, Karachi’s artist community has always been its driving force.

Contrary to what many people think that stage dramas in the city have recently gained impetus, there have always been individuals and groups who have kept the theatre scene, as it were, alive. The distinguished Ali Ahmed was one of them.

He had the reputation of being a master theatre person, and gave another evidence of it by writing and directing a play titled ‘Qissa Jaagte Sote Ka’ at the historic Theosophical Hall in the second week of August. On Aug 11, a reviewer termed the story the ‘struggle between the common man and the special man’.

He hailed the performances of Latif Kapadia in the role of the common man, Lily Davidson as his wife and Zeenat Yasmin as the secretary to the ‘special man’. The off-stage noteworthy thing about the production was that it was presented by the National Bank of Pakistan’s Arts Club. Does the bank still have an art club?

Here’s in an interesting nugget of information that appeared on Aug 14 in Dawn’s Karachi city page from a different realm altogether. It said on Aug 13, 1965 the governor of West Pakistan, Malik Amir Mohammad Khan, issued an ordinance declaring Tuesdays and Wednesday as ‘meatless days’ throughout the west wing except the tribal areas.

It was done by amending the West Pakistan Animals Slaughter Control Act 1963 for the ‘purpose of prohibiting slaughter all animals, including goats’, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

So rules for the tribal areas were different even then?

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2015

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