THESE days the students in the city, in fact all over the world, are staying back in their homes because of the situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak. Justifiably so. But the young pupils have always been at the top of the priority list of government institutions, at least up until the 1970s. On March 30, 1970, the provincial government announced it had sanctioned about Rs900,000 for awarding scholarships to students of the Karachi region for the ongoing financial year. It included Rs132,000 for the students of middle and high schools, Rs354,000 for the ones in post-matric classes and Rs308,000 for college students and those enrolled at training schools.

If the student community appeared to be in safe hands, there were groups that weren’t happy with the government –– for example, medical practitioners (as could be gauged from the previous column). On March 30, 740 doctors of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) went on 24-hour strike to press for their demands. Thousands of patients waited for long hours at the outpatient departments to receive treatment from senior doctors. The house staff and other medical officers who had to report on duty at 8am did not turn up either. Continuing with this act of remonstrating, on April 4, over 1,000 doctors serving in various hospitals of West Pakistan, too, observed a no-work day. In Karachi, about 225 doctors of the JPMC abstained from their duties in response to the call by the Young Doctors Association. What were they demanding? Well, their demands included: all fresh graduates be provided with paid jobs; increase in the number of house jobs, accommodation for paid and honorary staff; upgrading the post of senior registrar to senior Class I after five years of service; and creation of autonomous health service as demanded by the Pakistan Medical Association.

Another disturbing piece of news broke on April 1: a large number of cotton bales worth hundreds of thousands of rupees were gutted in a fire which broke out in the TPX godowns. Nearly 150 bales were completely burnt. More than six fire engines participated in the firefighting operation which took about half an hour to complete. Labourers on the spot said the fire was caused by a burning cigarette which might have been flicked onto the cotton sacks by mistake.

As if that wasn’t enough to cause a bit of a headache to the administrators of the city, on April 3 a group of Muhajir and Sindhi allottees of the evacuee properties located in Hyderabad, Sanghar and Mirpur Khas demonstrated on Karachi’s roads against their alleged ejectment and the looting of their crops. They went to the newspaper offices where they explained how some Hindu families, who after migrating to India, had recently returned to Hyderabad, Sanghar and Mirpur Khas, and had dispossessed the Muhajir and Sindhi allottees of the properties without any notice.

As far as the cultural goings-on were concerned, on March 31 the annual elections of the Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association, Karachi region, were held. Alhaj S. H. Fatmi was elected vice chairman of the association. The following are the names of the members of the working committee who were voted in: Hakim Ali Zardari, Humayun Baig Mohammad, A. H. Ayub, Manek Jmobed, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, Dara S. Behrana, Haji Umer Suleman, Chaudhry Abdul Razzaq, Yaqoob Al V. Karimi, Ajmal Husain, N. A. Moshirwani, Ghulam Mohammad and Nasir Ali.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2020