HOW often do we hear the word corruption in our daily lives? Answer: countless. So much so that the word is now even used in the Urdu language without its Urdu meaning. There’s a reason for it: it has been part of our sociopolitical lexicon for more than five decades.

On July 10, 1969 it was reported that 16 officials of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) had been listed as corrupt, inefficient and rude in dealing with the public. The list prepared by the West Pakistan Government was to be later sent to Lahore for an appropriate action against the officials. Listing of more such individuals was under way at the KDA itself to clean up its administration. It was learned that almost all names on the list were those of engineers.

As if it was not a shocking enough piece of information, the next day, July 11, the city was rocked by another disturbing news item: as many as 14 persons died within 24 hours after drinking ‘poisonous liquor’. The deceased belonged to the low-income group and ‘seemed’ to be addicts. The police had begun investigating into the matter. Most of the victims were brought from Soldier Bazaar, Ranchhore Line and Arambagh.

On July 12, the police rounded up 24 narcotic peddlers, including those who supplied the liquor to the people in a city-wide drive. The campaign kicked off on the order of the deputy inspector general of police, M. Y. Orakzai, following an increase in the number of deaths due to the dangerous drink. The law enforcers got hold of Ibrahim and Sangeen Khan from a place called Anwar’s Saqikhana. Abdul Qadir, Gul Mohammad and Kaka were arrested near Railway Store while Juma Khan was hauled up in Saddar.

Speaking of campaigns, on July 8, the traffic education project initiated by the traffic police a few weeks back started, according to the department, showing commendable results. The citizens of Karachi were becoming more traffic-minded, particularly the pedestrians who even at places where no policemen were posted complied with instructions with the result that the motorists were now finding it more convenient and safe to drive in the absence of pedestrians on the main roads. The number of road accidents had also decreased during the week.

Wow, this sounds good, almost too good to be true. Things were not well with the Regional Transport Company (RTC), though. About 200 Swedish buses (which had arrived in the city the previous year) were withdrawn from various routes for minor and major repairs. The withdrawal of the buses had caused considerable hardship to the people, particularly on the routes that were covered by the RTC. The media confirmed that “quite a large number of these highly sophisticated vehicles were lying in the dock for servicing and repairs”. Officials of the company claimed that a total of 570 buses were used for 52 routes of Karachi. But this newspaper said the number of buses, actually, on these routes was much smaller than the given figure.

Staying on the subject of numbers, on July 13, the provincial education department asked the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) to upgrade all its primary schools to class eight. The department was of the view that “primary education means education up to class eight”. The corporation was, however, resisting the order on the plea that the KMC schools were faced with accommodation problems.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2019