Surprised? Startled? Don’t be. It’s a 50-year-old headline, though the subject does not seem to have lost its relevance. Back to the headline which appeared in Dawn’s city pages on Sept 4, 1965. It was not a big, bold news item, by the way. The background of it was that at the end of the month of August, tensions between India and Pakistan were escalating at a breakneck speed. India’s unprovoked aggression was signaling something even more horrendous to come.

Kashmir has always been a disputed issue between the two neighbouring countries, and no different was the case in 1965. So on Sept 4, it was reported that the night before a batch of 101 mujahids had left for Muzaffarabad by Khybar Mail. The mujahids, who had been sent under the auspices of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference Karachi, would fight alongside Kashmiri mujahids for the liberation of Kashmir. They were first supposed to go to Muzaffarabad and then cross the ceasefire line.

The situation was getting tenser and newspapers kept publishing such reports. On Sept 5, it was announced that a second batch of mujahids was to leave for Kashmir. The concern was becoming widespread. The same day when the second group was to depart, the working committee of the Karachi Divisional Muslim League urged the government to issue special five paisa stamps to raise funds for Kashmiri freedom fighters. Two days earlier, on Sept 3, grave concerns were expressed at a meeting of the Karachi High Court Bar Association over the war-like conditions created by India’s ‘unlawful and immoral stand on the Kashmir issue’.

Similarly, the District Council Karachi expressed its wholehearted support for the freedom fighters’ uprising against oppressive Indian rule, warning India that Pakistan would not remain silent if it did not stop its repressive policy.

The government was not sitting idle either. It was adamant to take a firm stand on the matter. On Sept 6, Pakistan was scheduled to take part in the World Constitutional Convention to be held in Milan. But on Sept 2, it was relayed through a statement that Pakistan would not be part of the convention because of India’s aggression on Pakistani territory. Pakistan also decided not to attend the meeting of the World Parliament Association a week later for which the Pakistani delegation was to reach Europe on Sept 5.

All of this should not imply that only war hysteria was the highlight of that week in 1965. As discussed in the last column, the tourism department of the province had begun to play an active role in Karachi’s development.

On Aug 30, the department suggested to the government that a special cadre of English-speaking traffic policemen be created so that it could properly guide foreign tourists on where to go or how to reach certain destinations in the city. Wow! English-speaking traffic policemen: was the tourism department ambitious or what!

On the subject of ambition, even in 1965, when the population of the country was under reasonable control, the authorities were aware of the dangers of demographic boom. On Aug 30, at a meeting of the district family planning board held under the chairmanship of the deputy commissioner of Karachi, Amjad Ahad Sheikh, it was decided that 29 family planning clinics would be set up in the city. Did it work? We all know the answer to that question.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2015

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