PAKISTANI cities’ administrative bodies have often used foreign aid for development purposes. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as development takes place. In 1975, a delegation of environmentalists from the US came to Karachi. On Oct 20, this newspaper reported that the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) had given a list of nine projects to the American team which visited the city recently to examine the possibility of spending funds. The aid’s extent was to be decided by the US government on non-inflationary projects in Pakistan. Talking to the media, Director General (DG) of the KDA Syed Abbas Hussain Shah said the funds were to be provided under a programme which included water regeneration studies and the general environmental sanitation facility in the Metroville zone of the city. The total cost of the project was Rs50 million. The DG claimed that about 60 per cent work on low-cost housing projects had been completed under which 600 flats were being constructed in Lyari, Abyssinia Lines and Metroville. Initially, the plan [for low-cost houses] was to cost Rs7.7m but the expenditure had risen to Rs12.5m.

Receiving assistance, among other things, should make the assisted feel grateful. The feeling of thankfulness was noticed the same day, in a different context though, when Abdul Waheed Katpar, President of the Pakistan Peoples Party (Sindh) and a senior provincial minister expressed gratitude to the people of Karachi for electing the PPP candidate Nurul Arfin from NW-134 Karachi-7 in a by-election. Commenting on Mr Arfin’s victory, he said Karachiites had broken the myth that the city belonged to the opposition parties and at the same time had belied the JUP’s claim that they had a strong hold on Karachi. Mr Katpar praised the wisdom of the voters who had refused to be misled anymore by those who tried to live on sectarian slogans.

Staying on the subject of politicians, on Oct 22, the 11th death anniversary of the second governor-general of Pakistan and a former prime minister of the country, Al-Haj Khwaja Nazimuddin was observed in the Sindh capital. Fateha khwani was held at Masjid-i-Tayyaba. Al-Haj Syed Abdul Kader Al-Gaylani, former ambassador of Iraq in Pakistan, especially took part in the event. Those who spoke on the occasion were Syed Hashim Raza, Maulana Abdul Hai Abbasi and Dr Mohammad Zawali. All of them paid glowing tributes to Mr Nazimuddin.

As far as the artistic side of the city of lights was concerned, on Oct 23, an exhibition of 30 paintings and 10 sculptures by more than a dozen artists opened at the Atelier B M Gallery. The variety of approaches to art highlighted through the exhibits included woodcut prints, figures in relief, abstract, study of faces, self-portraits, a particular depiction of Picasso’s patterns and a series of paintings called ‘the lonely girl’. The artists who took part in the group show were: Shahid Sajjad, Farida, Naqsh, Imam, Kohari, Mansoor Aye, Anwar Maqsood, Wahab, Saghir, Rahi, Zahoor, Hajira, Lubna Agha, Ata and BM. Wow, that’s a stellar lineup!

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2025