THE hot and humid weather was getting to Karachiites. It was now, as they say, summer time. On April 17, 1969 city roads began to sweat as the maximum temperature shot up to 96 degrees Fahrenheit. The weather left a thick layer of melted bitumen spread over road surfaces. There was the constant sound of sizzling heat as wheels of vehicles moved over the bitumen. The “sound of Karachi summer”, as one reporter put it, was most audible on McLeod Road, where stretches of the half-finished road (since construction work was going on) were, “baked” afresh in the heat. The sound of summer was also noticeable on Club Road, where the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had recently completed laying the road’s preliminary surface.

It is a given that as the summer season peaks, Karachi faces an acute water shortage. Things were the same 50 years back. But the media at the time was blaming the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) for engineering the water crisis. On April 18, the KDA in a press release rang alarm bells for the citizens by saying Karachiites would have to put up with chronic water shortage till 1971, the year by which the authority had expected to complete the second phase of its Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme. This harsh “fact” had come from the KDA in reply to some critical news items “which tend to give the impression that the shortage has been created deliberately by this authority”. The KDA explained that “the same (shortage) is unavoidable and that is why it has been appealing for public cooperation in meeting this situation during the interim period.”

What does a competent authority do when the sun keeps beating down on its nook? It plants trees. On April 18, it was announced that the KMC’s horticulture department had launched a tree plantation scheme in Nazimabad and Liaquatabad. The plan, which cost up to Rs100,000, was to be taken up in two phases. The first phase would be over with the ongoing tree plantation season, and the second was to begin with the advent of the next season. The department had selected a wide variety of big trees, with different colours and fragrant flowers as well as tall shrubs and bottle palms, for the first phase. How wonderful! Can’t it happen now?

On the cultural front, two important events took place that week. One, on April 18, an exhibition of paintings by distinguished artist Anna Molka Ahmed was inaugurated at the Arts Council, Karachi. Anna Molka Ahmed, who was then head of the department of fine arts, University of Punjab, did not attend her first solo show of 36 oil paintings. But, as a critic said, this could hardly matter for her paintings were representational in nature and not clouded by a private vision. Most of her artworks were portraits of artists and scenes from the Swat valley, all done in an expert expressionistic style.

Second, a report published in this newspaper on April 20 revealed that the National Museum of Pakistan located in the Sindh capital had acquired the proceedings of a public meeting of Muslims of India held at Dacca on Dec 30, 1906 for the formation of the All India Muslim League. The proceedings were published and issued on March 1, 1907. Mr Mohammad Ali printed the 18-page document at Lucknow. The original document owned by Mahmud Ahmad Abbasi of Karachi had now been sold to the museum and a photocopy was available at the National Archives of Pakistan for reference. The document, which was considered a rare acquisition, had a six-page introduction, with a brief history of the political movement that culminated in the formation of the All India Muslim League. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Nawab Viqarul Mulk Bahadur. Nawab Salimullah Bahadur of Dacca was elected first president of the league at that session.

Wow! One hopes the document is still in safe hands.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2019