The spread of the eye disease conjunctivitis was becoming a little difficult to control for the city administrators. The problem had turned out to be more complicated than they initially expected. On May 26, 1971 focusing on just one locality this newspaper reported that with the disease assuming epidemic proportions in Lyari, Spencer Eye Hospital’s doctors went out to the affected 186 patients at a hastily setup camp in Baloch School. Apparently, the ailment was responding well to antibiotics but they were quite costly. Experts were of the view that conjunctivitis was not caused by any virus; rather, it was endemic and common in the city in early summer and winter.
Another thing that was on the rise that week had to do with, arguably, mental health. On May 25, avid readers were a little disappointed to know that imported books and magazines would be sold at double the price henceforth. The steep increase in their rates was caused by their being placed in the cash-cum-bonus category instead of the cash one in the revised import policy announced by the government the previous month. For example, the price of Chamber’s Dictionary had now gone up from Rs22.50 to Rs45 and of Encyclopedia Britannica from Rs1900 to Rs3,980. And Reader’s Digest could be bought for Rs7 instead of the rather affordable Rs3.50. Come to think of it, there was a time when the price of Reader’s Digest was merely Rs3.50! Ah, the good old days.
From expensiveness to paucity: that week there was acute shortage of water in Yahya Colony in the Orangi Town area where 600 families were living in hutments. The Karachi Development Authority (KDA) which was responsible for the supply of the commodity to the neighbourhood, was sending one or two water tankers a day to the affected zone. On May 29, for instance, the inhabitants received only one tanker with about 300 gallons of water. The distribution system was also not satisfactory because the tanker was emptied into two to three ‘drums’ (read: barrels) from where people had to fetch water. They even struggled to get a bucketful.
Something positive, too, was happening in the same area, as highlighted on May 28 in a report that over 10,000 resident of Chittagong Colony were allotted land in Orangi Town. Their shifting was to begin in a week’s time. KDA officials said while the land had been allotted at the rate of Rs3 per square yard — mostly to East Pakistanis — they would be charged only Rs1.50 per square yard. The President’s Relief Fund was to pay 50 per cent of the cost.
What was keeping the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) busy all this while? Well, on May 27 the media cautioned that the KMC House comprising 127 members — elected and nominated — would be disbanded by the Sindh Government any moment following Martial Law Order 21 issued by the chief martial law administrator. The five-year term of the house had already expired on March 3 and was now working under extension granted by the controlling authority (city commissioner) of the KMC. There were 94 elected BD chairmen as members besides 24 nominated and nine elected-to-represent special interests such as women, minority, trade and social welfare.
Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2021
