MORE and more voices for Karachi’s merger with Sindh were now being raised, though there were a few that were still trying to opt for a different route. For example, on Dec 28, 1969 Hafiz Mohammad Habibullah, former vice chairman of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), told a press conference that the recently formed Karachi Province Front would mobilise public opinion from the next month in favour of making Karachi a separate province.

But this view was not as strong as its opposing stance. On Dec 23, a representative meeting of the citizens of Karachi urged the government to merge the city with Sindh. Presided over by A. K. Sumar, a former MNA, it unanimously passed a resolution expressing concern at the attempts by certain elements trying to make the city a centrally-administered area. It cautioned that any such action on the part of the government would be contrary to the wishes of the people and would amount to denying legitimate democratic rights to a people who were politically the most conscious elements of society. The merger of Karachi with Sindh was justified for reasons of history, geography, economy, culture and administration. Twenty-five speakers addressed the gathering which lasted for three hours. They represented the Karachi Divisional Council, the District Council, the KMC Council, the Landhi-Korangi Municipal Committee, political parties, student organisations and social and culture bodies. Among the speakers were Zain Noorani, Abdul Khaliq Allahwalla, Mirza Akhtar Hussain, Kassim Usman Kandawala, Begum Munawar Ali, Begum Sarwari Irfanullah, Mohammad Ibrahim, Kunwar Qutubuddin, Abdul Qayyum, Syed Ali Mukhtar Rizvi, Rana Azhar Ali, Pir Abdul Haq Chishti, Zia Abbas, G. M. Nooruddin and Rasul Bux Baluch.

To lend further credence to the idea, on Dec 24, the Karachi Provincial Awami League announced that it fully backed Karachi’s merger with Sindh and would also move its high command to support the demand. The party stated it recognised the city as an integral part of the province and it should remain so after the dissolution of One Unit.

On the cultural front, two important art events took place that week. First, on Dec 23, an exhibition of paintings that opened at the Arts Council introduced young Eqbal Mehdi as an artist of promise and great potential. His 48 artworks and drawings made a very striking show, indicating a bright future for the 22-year-old. A critic wrote that in order to realise this promise Mehdi would have to make up his mind and grow out of his present formative period to set his intense sensibility on an exact chosen course. The most significant feature of the display was the admitted reflection of Sadequain. The young man had borrowed much from the senior painter and almost all his recent work had been stamped with the familiar alphabet of Sadequain — such as barbed wires, nude studies and figures shaken by nightmarish agony, the critic opined.

Second, on Dec 26, an evening with Prof Shakir Ali, one of the country’s foremost artists, offered an absorbing glimpse into the making of a painter. Presenting a “summation” of his work at the Arts Council, in the presence of some of his representative paintings, Prof Ali mixed memory with comment and told his story in a frank, personal style. He recalled his arrival in Karachi in 1951 from wanderings in Europe, “eager to find people of my own species”, and reminisced about his associations with painters now well-known. He said he met Sadequain in an Iranian restaurant at Arambagh and remembered him saying, when told that he (Ali) was an abstract expressionist, that “to paint in abstract is an abuse of the intelligence of people.” Prof Ali said he then went to Lahore “and for the first time I felt at home” where he met a group of creative individuals to discover himself. The eminent artist was principal of the National College of Arts, Lahore, at the time.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2019