IMAGINE this scene: the enigmatic and inarguably Pakistan’s greatest artist Sadequain present at an exhibition of his own artworks and explaining to some guests the genesis of his paintings. It’s such an extraordinary sight. Sadly, he is no more with us. All we see now is art galleries putting on display his drawings and sketches with such impunity that it seems the artist used to distribute them in bulk. Obviously, it wasn’t the case.

On Aug 20, 1965 Sadeuquain held an historic exhibition at the Arts Council. The show was significant because after living in France for many years, the artist had come back to his country and ever since it was his first display of work. Interestingly, his stay in France did not incline him towards Occidental art, rather according to the art critics of the time, his latest work was indicative of his experience in mysticism.

The exhibition was attended, among others, by commissioner of Karachi Darbar Ali Shah. Sadequain helped the commissioner understand his paintings. The artworks that were on view ranged from masterpieces such as ‘Chain’ and ‘Metamorphosis of Lobster’ to ‘Mystic in Agony’ and his visual interpretation of IrubaiyatI. The show lasted for 12 days, drawing huge crowds. It was decided that the exhibition would later travel to Lahore, Rawalpindi and Decca (now Dhaka).

Mind you, the exhibition was arranged at a time when the city was not in a complete state of calm. Quite a few activities, which required the authorities’ intervention, were going on. On Aug 18, a nearly Bnine-hour strike by tram workersB disrupted the tram service creating a commuting problem for thousands of passengers. The strike was staged to protest against the alleged misbehaviour of the partner of the Mohammadali Tramway Company with president of the workers’ union Niaz Ahmed. The protest began at 9:30am and ended at 6:30pm through the conciliatory efforts of assistant director labour Chaudhry M Husain.

A day earlier, Aug 17, the health department of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) issued a note of warning to all cattle owners in the city to apply for allotment for an alternative space in the Landhi cattle colony failing which they would be forcibly removed. This was done because cattle brought back from other parts of the country to the city were being kept on unauthorised plots of municipal land. Unauthorised plots of municipal land? How much that concept has changed in 50 years, so much so that in 2015 municipal land can be grabbed by multiple individuals without much ado!

Cattle owners were not the only ones who came under the kosh that week. On Aug 21, the commissioner of Karachi warned local bus owners that if they did not improve their operational conditions he would be compelled to ask the West Pakistan Road Transport Board to take over the bus transport system in the city (so the threat of federal interference is nothing new). He said this while addressing a special meeting of officials and councillors of the KMC.

While all of this was taking place, on Aug 20 a three-member delegation of the department of Urdu, Tokyo University –– Yoshiaki Shomojo, Yoshicki Nihongi, Mistsuji Hashimoto –– visited the University of Karachi and discussed with its vice-chancellor, I. H. Quraishi, the different methodologies of teaching Urdu at universities. Yes, those were the days when great importance was attached to teaching Urdu.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2015

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