AS days passed by, the issue of the protest against retrenchment in Daily Anjam in the summer of 1966 became all the more complex. No immediate sign of an amicable solution was in sight. Its effects spread from Karachi to the rest of Pakistan in no time, though the city by the sea was at the centre of it all. As a result, on July 13, 1966, working journalists in the rest of the country observed a two-hour token strike to register their protest against the arbitrary removal of the editor and six members of the Urdu newspaper. The strike came in response to the call made by the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) and other unions of journalists in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Hyderabad and Dacca (yes, Dacca’s newsmen were very much in sync with their West Pakistan colleagues).

The complexity of the matter could be gauged from the fact that in the second week of July, five more staff members of Anjam offered to go on hunger strike if the dispute was not settled within four days. If they thought that those who ran the newspaper would relent, they were mistaken. Three days later, on July 16, the management of Anjam announced dismissal of all those employees of the paper who were on strike. Its resolve in sticking to its guns came to the fore when it published the announcement on the newspaper’s front page.

What course did the journalists have? Well, it was pretty much the same. The striking staff of the Urdu daily in reply said they would start a hunger strike in Karachi from July 20, while in a meeting on July 17 of the executive council of the KUJ it was decided that the union would observe a full day strike on July 22 to press for their demands.

Demands made by distressed groups are often answered with ‘assurances’ by those in whose hands it is to give relief to the groups. And usually things do not go beyond the ‘assurance’ part. Who knows it better than residents of Lyari! On July 16, Abdul Majid Brohi, a member of the Divisional Council Karachi, told the press that President Ayub Khan had ‘assured’ the people of Lyari that he would look into the development problems of the locality. Mr Brohi had called on the president on July 15 with a deputation comprising member of the divisional council. He said he had pointed out to President Ayub the need for schools, colleges and hospitals in the area, as well as pushed for grants for the 99-year-old leasehold rights to the residents who had been living in Lyari for decades. He added that the president gave a ‘patient hearing’ to his requests.

This does not imply that life was hunky-dory in other localities of the city. At the time, a severe drainage issue in Nazimabad had reared its head. Despite having proper drainage connections, there were cases in which families were using unhygienic drainage methods. On July 13, chairman of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in a statement said he had simplified the procedure for getting the connection. But despite that, 3,200 housing units were still without drainage facility. He asked the department concerned to prosecute those who had not yet got the connection and were causing unhygienic conditions in the neighbourhood. He said the KMC had requested union committee members and their chairman in Nazimabad to persuade the people to have the system in place within 15 days.

Ah, the KMC, wherefore art thou now?

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2016