IN 1967, the summer season in Karachi came a trifle late. When it did come, the sun beat down on the city with all its ferocious might. Not just that, this time around, summer announced its arrival with a dust-laden desert wind. On April 17, the mercury shot above the 100 degrees Fahrenheit mark. The consensus, however, was that Karachi, for a change, had an unusually long spell of spring that year. But the shift from spring to summer had been precipitated by the desert wind blowing from north-east. It kept blowing all day long on April 17.

One is not sure whether it was the sweltering weather that caused the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) to launch a drive against architects or something else. What type of architects? Well, those who indulged in ‘unethical practices’, ignoring the building regulations. The authority had already cancelled the licence of one architect and was looking into complaints of malpractices against several others. The architect whose licence was cancelled had been found guilty of giving ‘fit-for-living’ clearance to an old building despite the fact that the KDA had already declared it ‘dangerous’.

One beautiful piece of old, colonial architecture in Karachi is the Richmond Crawford Veterinary Hospital. On April 20, the Karachi District Council proposed to take over the hospital building on Bunder Road (now M. A. Jinnah Road). In a statement the council said it intended to approach the provincial government for its transfer from the Animal Husbandry Department. The hospital was set up by the Karachi District Board before independence and was run by it until the city separated from the province of Sindh as Karachi was declared the federal capital of Pakistan in 1948. With the shifting of the capital to Islamabad, the hospital was handed over by the Central Government to the Provincial Department of Husbandry. After the introduction of the Basic Democracies System, the council thought of running the hospital again.

Many a sick animal was treated at the hospital. But what can one do if someone irritates an animal to put his fellow beings’ lives in danger? On April 17, a cow in Karimabad went berserk, ran after a middle-aged man for about 50 yards and trampled him. Here’s why the animal behaved the way it did: the man was waiting at a bus stop and the cow was ambling around nearby. Suddenly a boy threw a stone at the cow which enraged her and she charged at the man, hurting him badly. He ended up in the Civil Hospital.

Staying on the subject of animals, that week a pair of mute swans and Russian mullard ducks created history at the Karachi zoo by breeding in captivity for the first time in 15 years. Records suggested none of the wild ducks or swans had ever bred at the zoo because of the climate that was alien to them. The pair of ducks surprised the zoo-keepers on April 22 when they were seen leading their four young ones on a guided tour of the duck pond. It’s presumed they were four to five days old and parents had kept them in hiding in thick bamboo growth for safety. Another pleasant surprise came in the form of a mute swan egg of about the size of a cricket ball, also for the first time.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2017