NOWADAYS it is almost impossible to see, or foresee, Karachi as a city dotted with beautiful large trees and lush green patches of land. Not even the phrase ‘concrete jungle’ holds relevance anymore while describing the metropolis. Quoting someone who loves heritage, Karachi has become a surrealistic nightmare. The strange thing is that the turn-around from being a quaint little littoral town to a city of more than 20 million people, a good number of whom live in jerrybuilt buildings, happened not too long ago. Half a century back, Karachi took pride in its gardens and cozy places where you could unwind. A bit of it, if not all, was to do with the agriculture department that in the past was a pretty effective entity. Here’s why.

After independence, some areas in Karachi assumed great importance. Korangi was one of them. It had a couple of recreational spots because of which the city administration paid special attention to the locality. A coconut farm had been set up here in the 1950s on 50 acres with saplings imported from Goa. Yes, Goa. Later on, the farm was extended to 130 acres and saplings from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) too were planted. The agriculture department kept an eye on its development. On Aug 25, 1966, a spokesman for the department told the media that coconut palms at the government’s Korangi farm had started to bear fruit. He said the ‘palms were in blossom’ and more of them were expected to blossom soon. He termed the growth of the plants as ‘satisfactory’.

Of course, an uninterrupted supply of water is essential for sustainable farming. In those days, water supply in the city had reached the optimum point (about 90 million gallons a day) and was just about enough for a population of 2.5 million. As per stats given by the Karachi Development Authority on Aug 24, a further increase in supply (about 70m gallons a day) would be possible in about five years on completion of the second phase of the Great Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme. Pending that, it feared, water shortage might hamper house building and town expansion projects. A report compiled by the KDA said that the gap between supply and consumption was due to the influx of labourers, causing an increase in population.

The supply-demand problem was perhaps the reason why shopkeepers had begun to indulge in dishonest practices. On Aug 27, the additional director of food ordered an inquiry into the causes of high prices of flour in the city. Food inspectors were instructed to investigate the matter. The inquiry was prompted by objections raised by people saying that while the price of indigenous wheat had come down to Rs21 per maund, it was still being sold at between Rs25 and Rs26.

Speaking of objections, on Aug 25 the West Pakistan Government decided that henceforth a no-objection certificate for opening a new cinema house within 10 miles of Karachi’s municipal limits would be issued on recommendation of the city commissioner. The decision for Lahore was similar, but for other towns the limit was five miles.

But there was no limit on spending money on the upkeep of the city’s libraries (though a modest amount would usually be allocated for the purpose). On Aug 22, it was reported that Rs4,900 was sanctioned by the administrative council of the Khalikdina Hall Library Association for the purchase of new books and maintenance of the free-of-charge reading room. The council also sanctioned Rs6,000 for upgrading the library and resolved to hold regular literary sittings during the year.

Ah, the good old days of libraries and reading rooms!

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2016