DON’T be alarmed by the headline. It is taken from the pages of this newspaper published on Oct 23, 1966. It has no political dimension and is purely to do with the nonstop, horizontal and vertical, growth of Karachi. This was the time when mass migration into the city was in full flow and Karachi’s transformation from being a quaint little town to a bustling metropolis had begun. Not just that, the transformation’s momentum had almost become intractable.

Town planners at the time were trying to come to terms with the situation and devise strategies to counter it effectively. But it was not easy, because the situation was not confined to one particular locality. A case in point was discussed on Oct 22, 1966 by the media according to which town planners were worried about the mushrooming of 300 odd light and services industries, having 5,000 workers in their employment, dotting the three-mile Lawrence Road from Juna Market to the Zoological Gardens. They said it was primarily a residential area and the whole vicinity looked like a ‘jumble of land-users’ where commercial and industrial functions encroached upon residential buildings.

This was just one example which was proof enough to suggest where Karachi was headed. The next day, Oct 23, experts released a study and recommended a new greater Karachi plan extending up to Pipri to provide more space to the growing industries and an increase in population. The study estimated that Karachi’s requirement for industrial lands by 1980 would be roughly about 15,000 acres. At present, in 1966 that is, about 6,000 acres were under factory use. Another 3,000 acres were planned. The study suggested that after the existing, and planned, lands were fully utilised in five years more areas would have to be developed to meet the demands of the burgeoning industries. Experts had also marked out certain localities for future industrial expansion. They were: Landhi-Khanto and Pipri, both close to the Nathional Highwway, with SITE, Korangi and West Wharf.

Now only the current lot of town planners can tell us whether their predecessors 50 years back were accurate in their assessment of the situation or went off the beam. By the look of, it seems they grossly underestimated the city’s unbridled spread.

Mind you, while all of this was happening, Karachi’s revenue generation capacity never backtracked. In fact, and on the contrary, it kept contributing to the country’s economy in an efficient way. On Oct 20, a statement issued by the government said that compared to last year, Karachi had recorded a 25 per cent increase in revenue from excise and taxation (1965-66). The previous year, the excise and taxation department had collected Rs48.4 million, whereas in the ongoing fiscal year the amount was Rs.58.4m.

It has to be said though that this improvement, to a reasonable extent, was taking place side by side with the money that was being spent on different projects. The malaria epidemic for a couple of years had frightened the life out of Karachiites. Naturally, the authorities concerned took measures to tackle the problem, which resulted in more investments in health-related campaigns. On Oct 21, it was announced that expenditure for the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation for fighting malaria had climbed steeply: in 1964-65 it was Rs459,000 whereas in 1965-66 it shot up to Rs637,000.

Well, one of the good things about the old days was that at least the people at the helm tried to invest in health and education as heftily as they could, unlike today where both sectors are at the bottom rung of our priority ladder.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2016