IN 1971, Drigh Colony was brought under the jurisdiction of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC). Five years later, on March 9, 1976 it was claimed through an official handout that the KMC had spent Rs10m on the improvement of roads and other facilities in Drigh Colony since it was merged with the corporation. A progress report of the area’s development showed that in four years, the house-to-house water supply system in all the blocks of the locality had been completed. Previously, residents were supplied water from stand posts. The KMC had now taken up the task of laying the sewage lines in the neighbourhood.

The KMC was in the news on March 10 as well when it amended the Karachi Town Planning Car Parking Regulation 1967 of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) under which the owners of buildings and commercial centres would have to provide fixed spaces for parking of vehicles. According to the new amendment and one of the classifications, buildings, housing markets, ships, offices, godowns and banks had to leave an area of 1,000sq-ft for parking.

The biggest piece of information regarding the corporation, though, came in the middle of the month. On March 15, the Landhi-Korangi Municipality (L-KMC) was merged with the KMC. Announcing the decision, the Provincial Minister for Local Bodies, Jam Sadiq Ali, told a press conference that it was the first step towards the implementation of the decision of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for upgrading the KMC to a metropolitan corporation. The formal upgradation would wait until the necessary amendment to the municipal ordinance was made, which was being pursued separately. Following the merger, the regular employees of the L-KMC were to be given jobs at the KMC. “Since there was a ban on fresh recruitment imposed in the early 1975, this protection will not be available to those who may have been appointed in contravention of the government’s instructions. However, any individual case of hardship would be considered sympathetically,” the minister said.

As can be sensed, efforts were being made to brought about changes in the administrative set-up of the city. Efforts were highlighted in another context on March 11 when a former governor of Sindh, Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan said the sacrifices of those who gave us Pakistan should not be ungratefully and wilfully forgotten. Performing the unveiling of a portrait of the Quaid-i-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, at the Karachi Press Club (KPC), she said the making of a nation required a composite effort at all levels. As such, she stressed, the services of all — leaders as well as the masses — who sacrificed their lives and property should be recognised. “Gratitude in any form honours both those who give and those who receive,” Begum Ra’ana Liaquat remarked and extended her gratitude to the family of the renowned photographer, the late Arthur Sequeira, for donating the portrait — done by Mr Sequeira — to the KPC as a token of their deep attachment to the Father of the Nation.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2026