IT was a week that that did not paint a rosy picture of the city. From illnesses that one can’t have control over to man-made injuries… the Sindh capital was in the news for not the right reasons.
On June 16, 1970 the University of Karachi became the scene of fighting between two groups of students. Six youngsters were injured, including a girl who was taken to a local hospital in a serious condition. The free-for-all among them took place at a fund-raising mela organised by the World University Service at about 12.30pm attracting a large number of audience. The atmosphere was cheerful and carefree as there were many items of entertainment along with eatables for the students. After a while another group of pupils came objecting to certain items included in the programme; others did not agree with them. The clash of differing viewpoints ended up in a brawl in which they used chairs and tables to hit each other.
The other thing that’s usually associated with hospitals is diseases. On June 14, it was reported that more than two dozen patients of diphtheria were admitted to the Epidemic Diseases Hospital (EDH) in the last seven days. All patients were children under the age of 12 and said to have contracted the infection either from their playmates or class fellows. They were brought from Nazimabad, Korangi, Orangi Town, Rangiwara, Bhimpura, Mahmood Nagar and Liaquatabad.
As if that wasn’t enough to give the city administrators a headache, on June 19 it was claimed that polio had spread in an epidemic form in Karachi in the last few weeks because of water contamination. This piece of information was received by the Association of Pediatricians of Pakistan from its member doctors. A large number of polio cases were also brought to the main hospitals of the city.
Of course, there is so much that civic bodies can do to keep a check on such developments. But sometimes when easily doable things are overlooked, others try and salvage the situation. For example, on June 15 the University of Karachi took it upon itself the responsibility of a civic body to eliminate the pye-dog menace from its campus. The institution had to do that because of the refusal of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) to come to its rescue in combating the problem. The university authorities had urged the KMC several times to send a squad to take care of the dogs in the area because of the increased number of dog-bite cases among the students and others who lived in the vicinity. Allegedly, the corporation did not pay attention.
While all of this was going on, Karachi’s cultural landscape refused to bow down to negativity. On June 15, this newspaper published a review of an art exhibition highlighting that Jameel Ahmed made an impressive debut in the ‘loving, tender world of family and filial love’ by exhibiting 37 oils at the Indus Art Gallery. This was his 19th solo show in which he had made a departure from his usual landscape painting which had been his forte for a long time. His artworks in the ‘family’ series had many variations.
Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2021
