IT took two weeks for hundreds of fishing vessels to move and do business after they were denied ‘port clearance’ on Jan 1 because they had not equipped themselves with life jackets, fire extinguishers and navigational lights.

The standoff between the government and the fishermen community had, among other things, forced the fish vendors to disappear from the city causing a great deal of problems for housewives who could not now find fish to cook. Thankfully, on Jan 15, 1968 the fishermen’s appeal for extension of the six-month deadline to enable them to equip their vessels with safety appliances was accepted by the government.

It was decided that the entire fishing fleet on Jan 16 would be back to the sea. The acceptance followed a meeting between the central commerce minister, Nawabzadah Abdul Ghafoor Khan of Hoti, and representatives of the community on the morning of Jan 15. The negotiators consisted of fishermen, fish exporters, storage plan owners, boat owners, members of the Karachi Fishermen’s Cooperative Society, officials of the Export Promotion Bureau and the Mercantile Marine Department.

During the long discussions with the minister, the deputation explained to him the whole situation after which they were allowed the six-month extension.

If cooking fish had become a bit of a hassle then it had become relatively easy to cook vegetables. On Jan 15, a report published in this newspaper said that vegetable prices in the last week indicated a mixed trend with prices of some veggies in the city going down. Tomatoes sold last week for a rupee a seer, on Jan 14 sold for 75 paisas per seer, and potatoes sold for 68 paisas per seer could be bought for 58 paisas a seer.

What was going up, though, was the crime rate. As per the documents provided by the police on Jan 18, crimes in Karachi had increased by 11 per cent in a year. Serious crimes such as murder, robbery, burglary, theft, rioting, house-breaking and kidnapping increased particularly rapidly.

On the healthier side, another interesting thing that was on the rise was the speed with which issueless married couples in Karachi were adopting babies. There used to be a facility called the Naunehal Baby Care and Placement Centre, the first of its kind, established two years back. On Jan 17 it was brought to the notice of interested couples that there wasn’t enough number of babies at the centre because of which many men and women had to endure a long wait before they could call a baby their own. The centre would get unwanted or abandoned babies from hospitals and police stations (in some cases, from the hapless mothers themselves) which would be one child per month on average; but the number of applications for adoption it received from prospective parents was far in excess.

At the time, the centre had only five babies under its charge and there were 50 names of ‘suitable parents’ on its waiting list. Hundreds of other applicants had been rejected because they fell short of the standards for adoptive parents set by the centre. Since its inception, Naunehal had provided homes to 56 unwanted babies and had brought the joy of motherhood to the lives of 43 mothers.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2018