THESE days, we hear a lot about the anti-encroachment drive in the country, especially in Karachi where, in the last couple of months, Empress Market has been at the centre of all debates that have been raging both ‘for’ and ‘against’ the campaign. Well, half a century back, something similar happened, though not on as big a scale, around the market which caused a bit of disturbance in the city.

On the night of Jan 15, 1969 some employees of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) were attacked by hawkers who worked near Empress Market. The KMC staff wanted to remove unauthorised hawkers from around the historic building when the incident took place. They attacked the corporation’s workers when they were busy in removing some handcarts. A KMC van driver, Faqir Mohammad, received injuries; luckily, the rest of them remained unhurt. Two hawkers were arrested by the police.

The corporation was keeping busy that week. On Jan 18, a high-level meeting of its officials headed by KMC chairman Abrar Hasan Khan decided to decentralise its working in the interest of the public. The officials came up with the idea to open four zonal offices called ‘divisions’, including branches of the works, health and taxation wing of the corporation, in different parts of the city. Under the plan, Division I would be housed at the KMC building, Division II near the old municipal slaughterhouse in the Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society, Division III in the Karachi Development Authority’s (KDA) Scheme No 16, and Division IV in Lyari.

But what made the headlines on Jan 18 was something else: doctors in Karachi’s major hospitals went on a 24-hour strike from 8am. About 300 young doctors and medical students marched in a procession to press for their demands for Class I autonomous health service. This was the third act of protest by the city doctors in recent weeks. Carrying big banners, they left the Dow Medical College at about noon. Barring a few of them, all were in white gowns sporting a black protest badge on their chests. Coming out of the college, the procession turned to Bunder Road (now M. A. Jinnah Road) and proceeded towards Saddar, terminating at the PMA House. Almost all the junior doctors at government and municipal hospitals in the city abstained from work in response to the call given by the Central Medical Body. However, major operations were carried out by the senior doctors at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and Civil Hospital without the assistance of their juniors. They also looked after the in-door and out-door patients. (That’s how it should be. Patients should never suffer.)

It was also a difficult period for Karachi’s law enforcement agencies. On the morning of Jan 19, fire was exchanged between a police party and some ‘hut-dwellers’ in Azizabad. As a result, one hut-dweller and his sister were injured; others escaped the scene. The police had gone to Azizabad where some people had pitched unauthorised huts.

By the way, traffic police too were in the line of fire, so to speak. On Jan 16, an angry bus conductor assaulted a traffic police constable when the latter tried to tell the driver of that bus about the consequences of his reckless driving on Frere Road. After manhandling the policeman, the conductor ran away.

Some things never change! Or do they?

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2019