HERE’S a measure of how benevolent as well as volatile Karachi has been in its post-independence days, particularly, as has been highlighted before, after the population of the city began to burst at the seams.

On June 15, vice chancellor of the University of Karachi Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi accepted demands of the Blind Students Union of Karachi following a meeting with a delegation of the union led by its president Mohammad Bashir Husain. The first demand was about the extra time for the visually impaired examinees of the university. The second was that the students should be provided with ‘writers in the examination hall’ as was practised in other parts of the country.

And on June 16, it was announced that the central government had made a block allocation of Rs10 million to the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) for the industrial labour housing scheme in the city. The allocation was made out of an ad-hoc provision of Rs100m made by the government in the current year’s budget under the head ‘social welfare’. Orders for the grant were issued recently and funds were to be transferred to the KDA before the end of the financial year (June 30) so that the budget provision did not lapse.

But here comes the non-benevolent part. The issue of water scarcity in those days was getting increasingly painful. On June 17, a deputation of the Karachi National Awami Party (Wali Khan group) called on the city commissioner and told him about water shortage in several areas, including Mohajir Camp, Baldia Colony, Shershah and Patel Para.

As if that wasn’t enough to disturb the citizens, the next day, June 18, more than a dozen persons were rounded up in connection with a mob attack on the residents of KDA filter plant COD Hills at midnight on June 17. The frenzied rioters used firearms and hurled stones, causing damage to property and injuring 19 persons. According to police sources, some women in the locality were having a casual chitchat in an open space when a stranger came and allegedly made indecent remarks about them. While this was going on, residents appeared on the scene and held the stranger who shouted for help after which some armed people living in the nearby unauthorised roadside huts rushed to his rescue. This scared residents and their ladies took shelter in their houses as the ruffians continued pelting stones and beating whomsoever they met in that period. One of them also opened fire but no one got hurt. By the time the police reached the spot the attackers had done enough damage, creating panic in the vicinity. The police got hold of four men on the spot. More arrests were made in the early hours of the next morning.

The same day, a new car was almost blown up with a hand grenade in North Nazimabad in the early hours of the day. The vehicle, belonging to a health officer of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), was parked in his bungalow when the incident took place.

And on June 19, members of the Baloch Students Organisation (Karachi zone) demonstrated before the KMC main office against the commercialisation of vacant plots in Lyari. They were carrying placards and banners that read ‘Stop constructing the truck stand at Kalri area’, ‘Stop the construction of a petrol pump at Chakiwara’ and ‘We want educational institutions’.

In a related story, on June 20, the KMC at a meeting decided to refer back the issue of construction of the petrol pump in Chakiwara to the divisional commissioner for the final decision. The commissioner had asked the municipal body to reconsider its decision in view of the growing public agitation against it.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2020