ONE of the ways of regaining Karachi’s lost glory, tangible or intangible, is to make an effort to find out where have some of the objects, which were once part of the city’s historic buildings and public places, disappeared. For instance, the Frere Hall premises used to have some delightful statues that are no longer there. Even the sculptures of small, cute little cherubs that formed a major portion of the fountains at Frere Hall have been taken away.

Similarly, Karachi’s zoo, which has always been a vibrant recreation spot for the citizens, used to have some objects that added to its charm a great deal. For example, on May 9, 1966, this newspaper ran a report on two special zebras in the zoo. The reporter built the story in a nice way to attract the reader’s attention as well as to highlight the importance of the equids. According to him, the Karachi zoo had a pair of zebras the likes of which were nowhere to be found in the world. They did not move, eat or drink.

One of them had lost its ear because of age, perhaps. They were male and female, but did not mate. Children rode them. After giving the story a bit of hype, the news item revealed the real status of the zebras: they were made of stone.

This means that the sculptured version of the zebras must be rare and expensive. Even if they were not pricey, their popularity goes to show how such additions enhance the attraction of a public place. Now the question is: what happened to them? Were they removed from the site or did they just vanish into thin air or fell into disuse?

This was the time when Karachi had begun to burgeon. The influx of migration was continuing, which was slowly but surely turning the once quaint littoral town into a metropolis, adding to the workload and woes of the authorities. On May 9, replying to a question put to him by a municipal councillor, chairman of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Pervaiz Ahmed Butt disclosed that there were about 15,000 unauthorised roadside shops and cabins on municipal lands and pavements. Since they were illegal, the KMC had not levied any taxes on them, resulting in the annual loss of Rs1.5million to the corporation.

The next day, May 10, Karachi commissioner Syed Darbar Ali Shah chaired a meeting of the representatives of the city’s housing societies. He told them that service roads were to be built by the societies within their respective areas at a cost of Rs2.1million, because the condition of the existing roads was deplorable.

The condition of the roads was not the only issue faced by Karachiites at the time. There was also a terrible shortage of school vans for the young students. As they say necessity is the mother of invention, the officials of a local school came up with an interesting solution to the problem. They arranged a donkey-cart to pick small children from their homes and drop them off at school and back. But obviously it was not a plausible and safe solution, as a picture published in Dawn suggested in which more than two dozen children were seen, packed like sardines, riding the cart.

On the other hand, the planning to further expand and develop the posh areas of the city was going on unhindered. On May 15, it was announced that the Marine Drive named as Khayaban-i-Sahil in the KDA’s Clifton scheme would be completed by end of the year. The reclamation work in the 400-foot wide belt along the seawall was in progress and it was expected that the filling

would be over in three months. The reclamation process was being undertaken as per schedule. The low-lying blocks 8 and 9 had been fully reclaimed and the backwater of China Creek no more reached the surface of those blocks.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2016