A GROUP of archeologists believe that Karachi’s Malir area has a centuries-old history that needs to be thoroughly researched. It is not easy to verify that because over the past few years the city has garnered extraordinary attention resulting in the creation of so much noise in terms of its past that it’s become difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. This is the reason that documented history can be relied upon with a fair degree of certainty.

In the post-independence Karachi, especially in the 1960s, Malir had a significant position in the city’s socio-cultural setup. There were educational institutions, recreational parks and important national institutions in the area that always kept it in the news. On Feb 13, 1966 a hall named after one of the prominent leaders of the independence movement, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, was inaugurated at the Jamia Millian Pilot School in Malir. A granddaughter of the maulana, Dr Begum Qazi, unveiled a portrait of the great freedom fighter to inaugurate the hall, built at a cost of Rs90,000 and having a seating capacity for 600 persons. It’s an important nugget of information for multiple reasons. For starters, how come a facility named after such a great man has disappeared into oblivion? And to have a 600-seater auditorium in a city like Karachi is no mean feat. What is being made about it now, if it still exists, that is?

Let’s stay on the subject of inaugurations. On Feb 7, as the media gleefully reported on Feb 8, a press room at Karachi airport was opened by the president of the Pakistan International Airlines, Air Marshal M. Asghar Khan. The room was built for the ‘convenience of reporters’, and the air marshal hoped that journalists would use it frequently. Wow! How times change. Ironic as it may sound, today when technology reigns supreme, the media is not allowed to enter airports to keep high-profile arrivals, departures and arrests under wraps.

Liaquatabad, formerly known as Lalukhet, is not as old a locality as Malir, although its roots could be traced back to pre-partition Karachi when it lay on the outskirts of the city. After partition, especially till the time Karachi was capital of the country, Liaquatabad was a pretty decent neighbourhood. Among other things, it had a nursery that belonged to the provincial agriculture department. On Feb 11, it was announced that the agriculture department planned to grow Bangla paan. According to the announcement, the scheme which was submitted the previous year (1965) to the West Pakistan Government had been approved. The growing of paan was to begin in April in the five-acre Liaquatabad nursery. If grown successfully, that variety of the betel leaf was to be in the market within six months. Did it happen? Well, it may have happened, but given that it involves the word Bangla, let’s just say that it’s not grown here any longer.

Now let’s move to the never-say-die sparkling cultural life of Karachi. On Feb 10, the Islamia club organised its annual cultural event at Hotel Metropole to raise funds for an indoor games’ stadium. The highlight of the three-day programme was a musical segment conducted by the incomparable composer Sohail Rana. The singers that participated in the concert included Ahmed Rushdie, who some showbiz aficionados consider was the trailblazer of pop music in Pakistan. He sang the famous song ‘Akaile na jaana’ (composed for the blockbuster film Armaan by Mr Rana). The others who sang on the occasion were Firdausi Begum and Mustafa Zaman from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and Farida Khanum. Ah, the good old days!

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2016