ON Jan 26, 1976, Hatim Alavi, a former mayor of Karachi, a close associate of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and a prominent leader of the Pakistan movement, died in Mauritius where he had gone to see his daughter. He was returning to Karachi when he suffered a fatal heart attack. On Jan 28, Mr Alavi was laid to rest at Noor Bagh (Saddar Dawoodi Bohra Jamaat) graveyard. His funeral was attended by hundreds of people from all walks of life. The administrator of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), M A Majeed, placed a wreath at the grave of the former mayor while Brig Jamil Akhtar, chairman of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC, now KE), placed two wreaths. Scores of condolence messages from all over the country were received by the late mayor’s son, Aftab Alavi.

The KMC was in the news for another reason that week. A proposal to merge the Landhi-Korangi Municipal Committee (L-KMC) with the KMC had been debated for some time. On Jan 30, it was reported that the Sindh Local Government Department had not received a single objection from citizens to the proposed merger of the L-KMC and the KMC. The last date for filing objections was Jan 19, and inquiries showed no objection had been filed in response to the public notice published earlier in the month.

Steps such as the one mentioned above are taken to brighten the future prospects of a town or a country. Speaking of which, on Jan 29, Robert W Moore, US Consul-General in Karachi, said the future of America, ‘the mighty nation fashioned in just two centuries’, was brighter than before. Speaking at an event held in the city on the subject of ‘bicentennial of the American revolution’ he claimed that America’s success was due to the fact that the signers of the US Declaration of Independence had laid the foundation for every citizen’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The guarantee of such fundamental rights had lured millions of talented and hardworking “immigrants from all over the world to help build America into the nation we know today”, he said. Mr Moore added, “American history had been marked by pain and challenges, but there had always been progress. America is and will continue to be the same stronghold for men and women of independent spirit, energy and individualism as it was in 1776.”

On the artistic side of city life, on Jan 27, rich tributes were paid to the late Prof Shakir Ali as a pioneer of modern art in Pakistan and for his humanism, impressionism and purity of expression in abstract figurative paintings that ‘symbolised love, peace and beauty’ at an event held at the Ateller B M Art Academy to commemorate his first death anniversary. The programme was presided over by eminent social thinker Sibte Hasan. The participants included artist Ahmed Parvez, playwright Kamal Ahmed Rizvi, art critic Hameed Zaman and artist Bashir Mirza.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2026