Despite the vaccination drive initiated by the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), which also met with criticism for not covering enough neighbourhoods, smallpox had become a major cause for concern for Karachiites. On April 28, 1971 a report further alarmed citizens according to which, smallpox had claimed 105 lives while 282 cases were admitted to the Epidemic Disease Hospital (EDH) from various localities of the Sindh capital in the last seven months.

From Moosa Colony — the worst affected area — 83 patients were isolated in six days. Due to delayed treatment, 24 of them died within 48 hours of their isolation in the hospital. The highest number of deaths in 1971 was recorded as 44 and most of them were children under the age of 11. However, compared to the last quarter of 1970, the mortality rate had reduced by 11 per cent.

The corporation was busy doing its bit not just in the health sector. After all, it was the most important civic body of the city — it’s purview of duty was wider than all administrative bodies. On April 30, it was announced that at a meeting the library board of the KMC had recommended that a full-fledged library be set up in PECHS. The session was presided over by a local councilor Sami Khan, who asked the board to allocate sufficient funds for such facilities in its budget for 1971-72 so that construction of the PECHS library could start. Ah, that not-so-old culture of going to libraries!

What was the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), the other important administrative unit of the city, doing at the time? Well, on April 26, it received a bit of flak from the media when it was claimed that the Horticulture Department of the KDA had failed to grow coconut trees near Clifton beach. As per details, the saplings were planted by the authority a couple of years ago along the road leading to the sea wall. Other plants which could endure the strong sea breeze and saline land were also planted [but] they had dried out, too. The tree guards (or shelters) provided for the saplings were either lying idle or had been covered by ‘wild growth’, and at some places the KDA had tried to replace the coconut plants with creepers in order to make a hedge, the media added.

Despite these hiccups, because of its uber-urban atmosphere, Karachi had blossomed into a truly metropolitan centre visited by countless tourists from across the globe every year. On April 28, a study revealed that the fast rising number of boutiques in the city were offering a ‘happy’ variety of beautiful handicrafts, sparkling marble ware and elegant cotton casuals. Their main clients were the foreign tourists eager to buy exotic oriental gifts for folks back home. Ashtrays, lamp stands, vases and trays in green marble with brown veins were a specialty which was invariably picked up by them.

Another piece of evidence of Karachi’s popularity among non-Pakistanis was seen on the same day, April 28, when Princess Fatima, the younger sister of the Shahanshah of Iran, landed in the city from Tehran on a day-long visit. She was accompanied by the wife of Iranian Prime Minister, Mrs Amir Abbas Hoveyda, and other senior officials.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2021