AFTER Minhaj Barna became President of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) — as mentioned last week in this column — the union hogged the media limelight for a couple of more reasons. First, on Jan 9, 1973 it was reported that the previous day the members of the biennial delegate meeting (BDM) of the PFUJ demonstrated outside the office of the Sun newspaper to protest against what they called the management’s anti-worker and anti-trade union attitude. The procession led by Mr Barna started from the Karachi Press Club (KPC) at 6:30pm raising slogans against those who were at the helm of the daily publication.

And on Jan 11, the PFUJ condemned the Indian expansionists backed by the Soviet Union for their blatant invasion of East Pakistan in 1971,which ultimately led to the separation of that part of the country from the rest of Pakistan. The BDM in a resolution adopted during the session, which concluded on the morning of Jan 9, pointed out that India was guilty of flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international laws and the Bandung principle — [espoused at the Bandung Conference in 1955]. Strongly condemning Indian aggression, the meeting was ‘not oblivious to the reckless action of the Yahya rule whose anti-democratic and anti-people polices’, which it thought was also responsible for the disaster. The PFUJ saluted the heroic people of Vietnam for their brave and historic struggle against the US, calling upon the Pakistani government to recognise the Provisional Revolutionary government of South Vietnam.

On Jan 13, retired Air Marshal M Asghar Khan called for fresh elections ‘right now’ before the framing of the Constitution so that the people in the ‘fundamentally-changed conditions of today’ were helped to regain their faith in democracy and the rule of law. Addressing lawyers at a reception held in his honour at a local hotel in the city, the Tehrik-i-Istiqlal chief maintained that the government had long ceased to be a democratic one, and urged that it should be changed — the sooner, the better.

That was the situation in the political field. In the health sector there was a cause for concern, too. On Jan 10, a study published in this newspaper said that last month pneumonia had claimed six lives and 72 patients suffering from the disease were admitted to the two main hospitals of the city — the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and Civil Hospital. Mortality was the highest among those who had developed inflammation of membrane around their lungs. Doctors attributed the increased number of cases to the occasional cold wave in Karachi.

Staying on the subject of our beloved capital of Sindh, on Jan 14, Raja Tridev, the Minister of Tourism and Minority Affairs, visited Karachi’s beaches including Buleji, Paradise Point, Hawks Bay and Sandspit with a view to exploring the possibility of developing them for local and foreign tourists. He discussed with officials of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) and the Master Plan Department of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) the ways and means to build economy class tourist complexes for providing accommodation and meals to visitors.

Published in Dawn, january 9th, 2023