IT would be naive to suggest that the culture of clashes between workers of political parties, usually rival political parties, in our society is not as old as the country itself. Political workers in our part of the world have this uncanny knack for locking horns even at places where they are supposed behave in a solemn manner and not create ruckus. But then, what good are political workers if they can’t make their presence felt!

As well all know, in 1964, a fierce campaign between supporters of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah and military ruler General Ayub Khan for the presidential election was in full swing. The latter was representing the ruling party and the former was leading the Combined Opposition Parties also known as COP.

On Dec 25, the day when Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah (brother of Ms Jinnah) was born, supporters of the COP visited the Quaid’s mausoleum to offer fateha. A little later, workers of the Muslim League, the rival party, showed up for the same purpose in trucks. When the two groups came close to each other, eyeball to eyeball, they started chanting slogans which triggered a scuffle. It lasted for a few minutes before police came in and calmed things down.

Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah, by the way, was not in town when the scuffle broke out. She was on a 10-day trip to East Pakistan. The Madir-i-Millat was there for her election campaign. On Dec 27, she returned to Karachi.

The volatile political goings-on at the time, unlike these days, did not stop people from other countries to visit Pakistan. In those days a certain Mallica Vajrathon was Unicef’s public relation officer for Asia Regional Office. She was one of the distinguished UN civil servants from Thailand. That week Ms Vajrathon was in Karachi on an official trip. On Dec 22, addressing a gathering at a local Unicef office she said Pakistan needed more doctors. To date, her opinion holds true.

Ahmed Pervez was, and still is, one of Pakistan’s foremost artists. Some call him a modernist, but it’s not easy to categorise his art. He was born in 1926, and since 1955 had been living in Europe. On Dec 23, 1964 it filled art lovers with great joy to know that the artist had come back to Karachi. Not just that, he had made and brought with himself a collection of 400 paintings by top 30 artists of the world, including Francis Souza, Denis Bowen, Aubrey Williams and Douglas Portway. He had worked with some of the big names in art. It was reported by the media that Ahmed Pervez intended to exhibit his collection.

The exhibition would surely have been a dazzling experience for art buffs. Speaking of the ability to dazzle, the process of electrification in the city had not completed yet in the 1960s (not that it’s finished now). On Dec 24, a spokesman for the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation issued a statement saying that electrification of Malir Extension Colony would be complete in two months. Yes, at the time, the KESC (now K-Electric) engaged with its subscribers on a regular basis. Today, that’s not the case.

Published in Dawn, December 22th, 2014