THERE was a time when Karachi’s zoo was one of the prime recreational spots in the city, not just for Karachiites but also for visitors to the Sindh capital. The reason was that there was a variety of undomesticated animal species at the zoo brought from all parts of the world, and that included the eastern wing of the country.

On April 30, 1968 this newspaper ran a cute little story about a beautiful pair of geese. According to the news item, the pair of geese, trapped in a lake in the district of Sylhet in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), were recently presented to the Karachi Zoo, adding to its attractions. The winter birds, which are not generally seen in Pakistan, were caught in March by a hunter in a lake in Sunamganj, a sub-division of Sylhet. They were brought to the zoo for the first time. Shy and wary by nature, the geese visited Pakistan every winter and fell prey to hunters. A pride possession of the Karachi Zoo, the bareheaded geese were considered the prettiest in their family. The two-and-a-half-year-old female goose was expected to breed in winter. The two yellow dip birds kept themselves busy all day long swimming in the new surroundings and ran helter-skelter if someone tried to catch them.

In those days there were many things, such as the exchange of birds, which bridged the geographical distance between East and West Pakistan.

On the subject of bridges, construction work on one significant overpass in Karachi was the talk of the town that week. It was the Mauripur Bridge across the Lyari River. On May 1, it was announced that the construction of the bridge had completed. It was built at a cost of Rs3.73 million and the work took two years to finish. It had two sections to cover either bed of the river. The first was 727-foot-long and had 30 spans, and the second was 468-foot-long having 19 spans.

Two days later, on May 3, West Pakistan Minister for Communications and Works Muhammad Khan Junejo formally opened the bridge. Speaking on the occasion, he said the government had undertaken plans to extend the Karachi-Hyderabad Superhighway up to Peshawar. He gave an outline of the government’s plans to build more roads and bridges in the province to cope with the increasing traffic. He said while coming to take part in the inauguration ceremony he passed through the heavy Karachi traffic near Merewether Tower which made him think of the difficulties citizens faced during previous year’s torrential rains with no bridge in Lyari.

Here’s an interesting nugget of info. These days we hear a lot about the issue of sexual harassment. Laws have been passed to keep a check on the evil practice and the media has been vocal about it, and rightly so. But in Karachi, the authorities have been alert to the issue for a long, long time, though their efforts to stop it from happening have been smaller in scale. On May 2 (1968, that is), the deputy inspector-general of police, Karachi, issued instructions to all the superintendents of police to intensify the drive against anti-social elements in the city and take stern action against them. They were instructed to keep watch and proceed particularly against those who were a nuisance to girl students. Just imagine, if there had been social media at the time, the efforts would have been much more productive.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2018