IT was an important week in the history of Pakistani journalism. Journalists’ push for their demands, as was mentioned in the previous column, was getting tougher and intense. The situation seemed to be heading towards a standoff. Therefore the community went forward with its plans. On April 12, 1970 the federal executive council of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) at an emergency meeting in Karachi expressed complete satisfaction over the preparation for the countrywide indefinite strike of working newsmen scheduled to begin three days later (April 15). Among others, the meeting was attended by KG Mustafa and Minhaj Barna, president and general secretary of the union, respectively. The points that they were trying to come to fruition: immediate payment of interim relief to the journalists, upgrading of two news agencies and interim relief for non-journalist employees in the same scale as newsmen.

The next day, April 13, on-the-job journalists and workers connected with the newspaper industry took out a procession in support of their charter of demands. Led by the PFUJ president, general secretary and officer-bearers of organisations, including MJ Zahedi (president of the Karachi Union of Journalists), the procession started from the Karachi Press Club (KPC) and marched through Inverarity Road (now Sarwar Shaheed Road), Elphinstone Street (Zaibunissa Street) and Victoria Road (Abdullah Haroon Road).

Pen-pushers were not the only ones at the time to spell out their dissatisfaction at certain regulations. On April 14, in a press release, the Karachi University Library Science Alumni Association said it was surprised at the government’s failure to fix the salaries and other service conditions of the librarians who, the association insisted, formed an integral part of the education system. The KULSAA’s general secretary, Fazlur Rehman, appealed to the president of the country, Gen Yahya Khan, to look into their problems. Given the importance of books, as has been highlighted today (when people are asked to self-isolate themselves and book-reading appears to be the best way to go through the period to ward off the psychological effects of the lockdown) one wonders whether such associations exist in the 21st century; if they do, they should make their presence felt with more persuasiveness.

A tiny bit of agitation was going on in an important part of the city too, albeit in a slightly different manner. On April 12, a news item published in Dawn read that residents of Landhi and Korangi colonies had decided to boycott the Karachi Omnibus (KOB) services because of the “non-cooperative attitude” of the KOB officials to solve their transport problems.

The Landhi-Korangi Municipal Committee (L-KMC), representing the areas mentioned above, made the headlines that week for another reason, a positive one at that, which indicated how aware it was of its civic duties at the time. The same day, April 12, the L-KMC decided to donate Rs50,000 for the completion of Urdu College on University Road. Praiseworthy indeed. And if there was ever a need for such committees to do some community work, it’s today (in 2020) when society is experiencing a serious health crisis.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2020