THESE days, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) talks about not having the kind of funds that it requires to do its job. There might be a time when the corporation and other administrative units of the city didn’t have this kind of a problem… but controversies never stopped following them. For example, the KMC had set up a complaint centre at the end of May (1969) for the citizens to register their grievances with it. But it didn’t take long for the facility to become a moot point when question marks began to hover over its effectiveness.

On June 17, 1969 the KMC claimed that 59 of the 100 complaints recorded at its Complaint and Disposal Centre had been taken care of. A press release stated that the centre “established for quick acknowledgement and speedier disposal of grievances” was functioning smoothly as planned. It contradicted reports appeared in the media that the centre had “adversely” affected the corporation’s efficiency or had caused inconvenience to the visiting public, adding that such reports “misrepresented the bona fide status of the municipal administration which aimed at ensuring better and expeditious service to the citizens”.

On June 18, the corporation was busy with something more important than that: the KMC released budget proposals for 1969-70 which envisaged the biggest-ever development outlay of Rs669.29 lakh. The budget showed a total revenue income of Rs1287.23 lakh which reduced to Rs825.57 lakh after the transfer of Rs461.66 lakh to the capital development head. The total revenue expenditure for 1969-70 was estimated at Rs838 lakh leaving the corporation with a deficit of Rs12.43 lakh. The redeeming factor about the budget was that it provided two and half times more money for development purposes than provided in the 1968-69 budget.

Speaking of proposals, on June 18 the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation’s (KESC) chairman, Brig S. A. Kermani, urged the West Pakistan government to sanctioned increase in its charges both for industrial and domestic consumption. He was speaking at the 58th ordinary general meeting of the corporation. He pointed out that the proposal for an increase in the rate had been under consideration of the government since the previous year. As and when it is agreed to, most of the corporation’s financial problems would be solved. The KESC had particularly emphasised the increase in charges for the industrial consumption. The chairman added that 1968 was a landmark for the KESC became for the first time it generated over one crore units of electricity. Wow! That’s impressive.

Now here is something that depicts the technological paradigm shift for Karachiites. These days every second or third person in Karachi has a smart phone; 50 years back the opening of a telephone exchange (to have landline phones) was considered to be great news. On June 17, a new telephone exchange equipped with the latest machinery started functioning in the Defence Housing Society, a spokesman for the telephone and telegraph department told the media. He said the 280 telephones functioning from the Cantonment Exchange had been directed to work from the new exchange with new numbers. The machinery for the exchange was manufactured at the Haripur telephone factory.

These days, smartphones and millennials have almost become synonymous. How many millennials would know about the music recording and playing device called gramopohone? One suspects, not many. In the 1960s, it was a big thing. But its users were severely affected by the government’s imposition of excise duty on it a couple of years earlier. On June 21 (1969) this newspaper published a report highlighting that international competition and imposition of excise duty had caused a serious setback to the gramophone records industry in the country, Karachi being the worst-hit area. The sales dropped to just about five lakh per year since 1966 onwards from the record figure of over eight lakh in 1965.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2019