EVERY year, when summer sets in, people start talking about the need to have more trees in the Sindh capital. This is not something that began to happen in the 21st century. On July 8, 1976 this newspaper reported that the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) had proposed to preserve open spaces in the city and to improve the environment by developing neighbourhood parks and playgrounds instead of huge sport complexes during the ongoing fiscal year. The second major policy shift in the corporation’s approach with regard to making Karachi green was to come up with a comprehensive scheme to have more trees. Under the proposed plan, the KMC would plant 15,000 trees apart from four nurseries in different parts of the city. It was also decided that the corporation would continue extending the use of effluent and waste water for roadside plantations, gardens and parks. The KMC was already using that for its Kashmir Road Sport Complex, for roadside plantations at Shaheed-i-Millat Road as well as for parks in North Nazimabad.

In a somewhat similar vein, on July 10, the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) announced that its Master Plan and Environmental Control Department had finalised regulations to control proper planning and development in the Karachi metropolitan area. The regulations that had been prepared on the basis of the government’s given ‘master plan for Karachi’ was later to be submitted to the government for its approval and legal cover. The entire process had taken place in consultation with the departmental representatives and would be implemented by the local authorities functioning in the city which had been designated as ‘areas planning control agencies’. The Master Plan Department was also asked to do the monitoring to ensure a planned growth of the city.

On the cultural side of Karachi life, on July 7, the Chief Minister of Sindh, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, inaugurated an exhibition of photographs of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s recent visit to China and North Korea at the Arts Council. The show was sponsored by the Pakistan Association of Press Photographers and the exhibits on display were pictures taken by the three photographers — Hassan A Bozai, Altaf Ahmed Rana and S H Razi — who had accompanied the prime minister to the two countries. On the occasion, Mr Jatoi appreciated the efforts of the photographers for capturing history-making events and advised the organisers that the images should be preserved for future displays. In all, 44 black and white and 19 colour photos, capturing glimpses of the welcome accorded to Mr Bhutto in China and North Korea, were on view.

Coincidentally, the prime minister was in Karachi at the time. On July 8, Mr Bhutto presided over a meeting of office-bearers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from Sindh held at the Chief Minister’s House. Certain organisational matters, including the opening of PPP offices in several places of the province, were discussed in the meeting. It was attended by, among others, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Abdul Waheed Katpar, Abdul Fateh Memon, Kamal Azfar, Kasim Haji Abbas Patel, N D Khan and Syed Imdad Hussain Shah.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2026