THE city of Karachi, once a small dusty fishermen town of the 1880s, turned into ‘Queen of the East’ by 1947. It owes its beauty and splendour to selfless and untiring endeavours of a few individuals. Jaffer Fadoo (1854-1925), a businessman and philanthropist in his own right, was one such soul.

Although born into a business community, Jaffer after education up to matriculation chose medical apprenticeship and worked at the Civil Hospital as a trainee medical practitioner for almost two years.

In 1882, when Viceroy Lord Rippon introduced the local self-government system, Jaffer, then 28, was elected to the municipality where he served in various capacities up till 1907.

After terminating his medical apprenticeship, he opened the Sindh Medical Hall from where he supplied medicines. He had also established a steamer service for passengers from Hyderabad to Kotri to Tando Bago and finally to Talhar. The steamer service ran for almost two decades. In 1887, he began two bi-weekly newspapers, ‘Phoenix’, the only English language paper of its time, and ‘Praja Mitra’, both of which were published until 1918.

In 1904, he built the Jaffer Fadoo Dispensary, which was the first of its kind to serve the underprivileged of the fast-developing metropolis.

In 1911, King George V, in recognition of his many public services, awarded him the Coronation Medal.

The Jaffer Faddoo Dispensary at present belongs to the Kutiyana Memon Association and is part of a newly-built sprawling hospital. Unfortunately, the superb clock tower fixed on the old structure, topped by octagonal projecting eaves with a cupola, slightly different from the rest of the clock towers in Karachi, is no more the same because of the lack of proper attention by the authorities concerned. Even the decades’-old picture of the late Jaffer Fadoo has been removed.

I request the Sindh chief minister and the minster for culture and antiquities to take immediate steps and restore the old structure of the Jaffer Fadoo Dispensary with its clock tower, which is a national heritage and landmark of the metropolis.

MUHAMMAD ALI Tharparkar