RESIDENTS of Bhit Island breathed a sigh of relief on June 21, 1968, when water supply to the island, which was discontinued for non-payment of dues they owed to the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), was restored after three weeks. It was done so once the islanders deposited with the KDA the first instalment of Rs50,000 of a total of Rs136,000. They promised to the commissioner of Karachi and chairman of the KDA, Syed Darbar Ali Shah, that they would pay the remaining amount in instalments in four months. As for Baba Island, whose water supply was also disconnected — as has been mentioned in the last two columns — the situation was a bit different. The islanders were still collecting money to pay to the KDA.

That week, not just the water that people consumed on a daily basis was in the news, but (expectation of) rain also made it to the headlines. The weather was excruciatingly hot. On June 18, an interestingly worded report appeared in this newspaper about the drizzle that came down a day earlier. According to it, a light drizzle aroused false hopes and fears in Karachiites as it signified neither the end of the sultry weather nor a threat of heavy rains that disturbed civic life in the city the previous year. Experts said the monsoons were still far away.

The monsoons might have been far away, but Karachiites, a perceptive lot that they have always been, prepared for it much earlier. On June 23, umbrellas and raincoats made their appearance in the city markets following the drizzle over the weekend. Almost all general stores, cloth merchants and leather goods dealers had prominently displayed umbrellas and raincoats in their showcases. Many of them had put them outside their shops to attract the prospective buyers. Umbrellas of different sizes were offered for Rs14 to Rs25 per piece. Pretty pricey by past standards!

This clearly suggests that both the citizens and those who held the administrative reins in their hands constantly thought about how to deal with issues, predictable or uncalled for, in the right way. Here’s another cogent example of it. On June 19, the Karachi Municipal Reorganisation Committee suggested to the West Pakistan Department of Local Self-Government that there should be eight municipal committees and two cantonment boards topped by a metropolitan corporation for the city. Such a set-up was considered necessary by the committee to cope with the problems posed by the large size of the metropolitan area and its population. They felt that the suggestion would help accelerate the pace of development projects. The committee also proposed to make the KDA a development wing of the metropolitan corporation. The eight municipal committees proposed were: two for old town, three for trans-Lyari, one for housing societies, one for the Landhi-Korangi area and one for the Malir-Drigh Road zone. They added that a mayor would head the corporation.

Now to the all important cultural activities without which the Sindh capital would just be a concrete jungle! On June 17, leading Karachi painters were brought together in a group exhibition at the Pakistan American Cultural Centre (PACC) that attracted art lovers throughout the week. The exhibition presented a ‘happy harvest’ of the current works by 18 painters, who were represented by a maximum of three canvases each. Also included in the show were 16 sculptures. What made the exhibition worthwhile was that the painters had put up their recent works. The painters and sculptors who participated in the show included Ali Imam, Anwar Maqsood, Bashir Mirza, Jamil Naqsh, Kohari, Mansur Aye,

Naz Ikramullah, Shahid Sajjad and Zahoor-ul-Akhlaq. Wow! That’s stellar line-up of artists.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2018