IT was a strange week for Karachiites marked by a couple of accidents and an unusual protest. Fortunately, no human life was hurt in any of the events, but the incidents, for sure, did become the talk of the town in more ways than one.

On Aug 29, 1966 a public transport bus broke through the railing of Lasbela bridge over the Lyari river but was somehow saved from falling into the river by a hut made of cement. The bus was coming from New Karachi to downtown city at 6am when it careened off the road. Luckily, the passengers came out of it unscathed.

A day earlier, a kiln shell weighing 30 tons rolled off a truck, fell with a loud bang and crashed into a house in Abyssinia Lines. Shujaat Ali, 16, and his two sisters, between 17 and 19 years of age, were alarmed by the thunderous sound and the roll of the steel drum which was 12 feet in diameter and twice as long. The three teenagers saw the giant steel shell coming towards them through the window and moved out in the nick of time, just before the roof of their house collapsed. The kiln shell was being transported to Hyderabad in a special carrier. A WPIDC official said the corporation would compensate for the damage caused to the house.

Compensation was something that employees of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) were not demanding at the time. Rather, they were unhappy about the withdrawal of their special pay, pension and other benefits. So they adopted an odd, somewhat bizarre, way to protest. When they came to work on Sept 3, they had no shirts on. Some were wearing wooden sandals or flip-flops, and no shoes. They were ordered by their chief officer to put on their shirts within 30 minutes. No response. Department heads were asked to note down the names of the shirtless protesters. Almost all of the 1,500 employees came to the office like that and walked out at 1.30pm. They were protesting against the withdrawal of special pay and to press for demands of pension and other benefits. The Employees Union later decided to call off the protest following assurances by KMC higher officials that there would be no deductions from their pay. They also accepted to take the salaries which they refused on the first day of the month. Even after the decision came in their favour, and despite looking happy, they did not wear shirts. Talk about the swinging ‘60s!

But you have to hand it to the municipal authorities for realising the demographic boom in the city and its ever growing needs. This was the reason for coming up with a Landhi-Korangi municipal committee. On Aug 30, it was decided at a meeting presided over by the divisional commissioner of Karachi that the issues related to sanitation, conservancy, maintenance of slaughterhouses and markets, and control over encroached lands would be immediately transferred from the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) to the newly-formed committee. The KDA, however, would still be looking after water supply, road maintenance, streetlights and drainage arrangements.

Let’s end this piece with a nugget of information that reflects the cultural plurality that Karachi was once so proud of and is now struggling to retain. On Aug 30, the Hindu community of the city celebrated the festival of Raksha Bandhan at the Native’s Jetty bridge from 5pm to 7pm under the auspices of the Karachi Hindu Panchayat. Ah, the good old days!

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2016