IT was a momentous week for Sindh. From the mid-1950s to 1970 Karachi did not function as capital of Sindh because of the One Unit system that the then rulers had come up with. But all of that reversed when on July 1, 1970 West Pakistan was dissolved and Karachi was back to being the Sindh capital. On June 30, in the evening, illuminations at Sindh Madressah, where the Quaid-i-Azam had studied, and on some other buildings, greeted the revival of Sindh with Karachi as its capital. However, according to a Dawn report, there were no scenes of jubilation in the city on the realisation of one of the major popular demands. Political parties and private organisations had not planned anything and officially there was no fanfare or flourish of trumpets. Apart from Sindh Madressah, the buildings that were lit up were Jinnah Courts, the Sindh Muslim College and the Sindh Muslim Law College.

Things were changing rapidly as per the renewed set-up, though. On July 1, Radio Pakistan Karachi’s new half-hour daily Sindhi programme was launched with Sindhi music. It began with the very first couplet of Shah Abdul Latif’s Risalo from a hamd. Also, the entire police force in the newly created province was now to be called the Sindh police. This was announced by Inspector General of Police Khwaja Masrur Hussain.

What didn’t change were the issues that had begun to keep the authorities on their toes. On June 29, a news item revealed that the day before at least nine persons were injured in a brawl in Nafisabad that took place when a ball hit a stationary truck and the frenzied driver ran after the boys who were playing with it. As many as eight persons were arrested for forming an unlawful assembly and indulging in rioting.

Health-wise, too, things didn’t look pretty. The incidence of asthma in the city had increased by 40 per cent in a month. The Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and Civil Hospital received 70 patients of asthma in June as against 52 in the preceding month. Most of those who visited the hospitals were old men belonging to the lower socioeconomic group.

As if that wasn’t enough to put pressure on health workers, on July 4 the JPMC was thrown out of gear due to a major power breakdown, affecting the entire working of the hospital. The whole building plunged into darkness and hundreds of patients at different wards spent restless hours because all the ceiling fans came to a standstill. The power breakdown, which happened soon after the downpour in the afternoon, could not be fixed until late night.

And the issue of water scarcity and other problems related to its supply had almost become unbearable. On June 29, it was reported that the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) arbitrarily enhanced water tax in North Nazimabad. The rates had been given retrospective effect from July 1, 1961 — that is, from nine years back. No public announcement of the increased rates had been made by the KDA.

As far as development was concerned, on July 3, Lt Gen Rakhman Gul, governor of Sindh, inaugurated the new Kalapul bridge which was opened to vehicular traffic immediately after the ceremony. The bridge was constructed by the KDA at a cost of over Rs1 million. it included the completion of the approach roads.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2020