Anyone following the story of the mysterious demise of poet and bureaucrat Mustafa Zaidi must be wondering what happened to Shahnaz Gul, the woman who was found unconscious at the scene of his death. Well, she was taken into police custody on suspicion of murder. On Sept Nov 23, 1970 it was reported in this newspaper, which had covered the case pretty extensively, that “Justice Muhammad Haleem of the Sind-Balochistan High Court will today announce order on the bail application of Shahnaz Gul, accused of alleged murder of ex-CSP officer Mr Mustafa Zaidi. His Lordship had reserved orders on Friday (Nov 20) after hearing the defence and state counsels for well over three hours… The District Magistrate Mr K. Idris has fixed Dec 3 for hearing the murder case and has directed police to submit the final challan in the meantime. Until then he had remanded her to judicial lockup on the charge of murder.”

Two days later, on Nov 25, the widow of Mr Zaidi, Veera, who was in the country to seek justice for her husband, left for Germany to be with her children. She had arrived in Karachi a month ago after receiving the tragic news of her husband’s passing away and soon after her arrival had addressed a press conference held at the residence of Mr Zaidi’s nephew (as was mentioned in these pages) in which she had expressed her dissatisfaction with the police investigation. She was in the city at the time when Mr Zaidi’s body was exhumed. Before leaving she said she would come to settle in Pakistan because it’s the country of her husband where he’s also buried, adding that she’s leaving for Germany because her two children were living with her old mother (their grandmother).

It seemed that a lot was still in the dark as far as the case was concerned but, interestingly, that week the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC, now KE) was providing light not only to the citizens in general but to its own staff in a somewhat different manner. On Nov 23, MD KESC Brig S.A. Kermani announced that the KESC had started a scheme under which its workers were being given shares of the corporation to give them a real sense of participation. He said that while inaugurating a week-long course especially designed by the West Pakistan Management Institute to meet the KESC requirements. The course was attended by 40 engineers of the corporation. The MD claimed that the KESC had become the first commercial organisation in the country to have accepted the demand of its workers to make them shareholders.

That wasn’t the only ‘new’ thing that happened that week. On Nov 27, a new bridge over the Lyari River connecting Gulshan-i-Iqbal with F B Area opened to traffic. The opening of the facility completed the last link in the circular road system to give motorists a direct and short route from Mauripur Road to Drigh Road. Constructed at a cost of Rs1million, the bridge was 380ft long and 52ft wide with a six-foot wide pavement on one side and a 44ft wide carriage way.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2020