KARACHI, Aug 23: In the botanical garden being developed in Zamzama, Defence Housing Society, there would be a bonsai development wing that would in turn become a bonsai park. This was said by Gen Waseem Ghazi, Commander 5 Corps, while inaugurating the fourth bonsai exhibition organised by the Pakistan Society for Bonsai and the city government, at Kahkashan Park in Clifton. Around 350 bonsai were exhibited. The first prize was awarded to Khwaja Mazhar for his 28-year ficus that measures no taller than one and half foot, has rupee-size leaves instead of the three inches which is the normal size and a three-inch girth that would be anywhere eight feet in normal trees. It also has the curves and twists of a grownup. The branches remind one of the lilliputian fantasy.

So is the case with the second and the third best bonsai brought in by Aslam Sulaiman for his pilkhan and of Com Khalid Soahail whose ten-year ficus appears to be a green lovable toy that is mysterious to look at and very real in perspective.

Lt-Gen Tariq Wasim Ghazi was awarded a merit prize for his mini juniper that has the reputation of being the slowest to grow in the community of trees. In several instances, where nutrition is low and of poor quality, a juniper may attain a growth no more than an inch in eighty to hundred years.

The Pakistan Bonsai Society is building a permanent office in Zamzama where it will have an exhibition hall, a library and a teaching school for bonsai.

—Dr A.A. Quraishy