A GREAT deal has been written on writer and art connoisseur Atiya Fayzee and her artist husband Samuel Rahimeen Fayzee. To refresh memory: the couple migrated to Pakistan at Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s request and established a veritable cultural centre in Karachi called the Aiwan-i-Riffat. What followed and how that cultural space was gradually taken away from them is a sad tale. Atiya was an extraordinary woman, admired by such people as Allama Iqbal, the last phase of her life could have been less painful. It did not happen though. Do we know when she died or where she is buried? Here’s the answer:

On Jan 4, 1967 Atiya Fayzee breathed her last at the Seventh Day Hospital. She was 85. This newspaper ran the story of her burial, rightly pointing out her many talents: “poetess, painter and author of a number of books on music”. The funeral procession began at 10am on Jan 5 from Sulaimani Jamaatkhana on Grant Road near Haqqani Chowk. A large number of mourners, including Mumtaz Hasan, Prof A. B. Haleem, Dr Mahmud Husain, the commissioner of Karachi, and chairman of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). She was laid to rest in the historic Mewashah graveyard. A wreath was placed on behalf of the KMC on her grave. Her sister Nazli Begum, who was in Karachi at the time, told journalists that had come to express their condolences, that it was her cherished desire to see her art treasures well-preserved. Have we done that? Not that difficult question to respond to.

As can be sensed, the beginning of the year 1967 was not a particularly auspicious one. Karachi was already under tremendous pressure because the city had started to pose a demographic challenge to the authorities from which we never recovered. In fact, the challenge has now assumed Herculean proportions. That week, Mian M. Yasin Khan Wattoo, West Pakistan minister for basic democracies and local government, was visiting the city. On Jan 2, a meeting was arranged by officials of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) to inform the minister on the latest goings-on. He was told by KDA officers that migration from upcountry and concentration of industries in Karachi would soon lead to a shortage of drinking water. They added that the growth of industries and population was so rapid that it was becoming increasingly difficult to meet the burgeoning demands for water. So it was decided in the meeting that it’s necessary to implement the second phase of the great bulk water supply project (of 70m gallons of water per day). How true the KDA’s fear was. And whatever happened to the bulk water supply scheme.

To be honest, the authorities concerned were doing what they could (perhaps they could have done more by preempting the situation) to keep Karachi as problem-free as possible. For example, they had recently recommended punishing public transport drivers, guilty of reckless driving causing accidents, with a seven-year sentence. On Jan 2, transport workers at a get-together expressed their concern at the recommendation. They formed a 12-member committee which asked the bus owners to provide security of services and regular employment to the drivers and conductors. There you go. In 2016 the city is bursting at the seams, people buy water to drink and public transport system… well, the less said the better.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2017