ON Aug 29, 1975 a dust storm hit Karachi. The 30mph storm lasted for 15 minutes. The cool breeze accompanying it promised rain but it only drizzled. According to the Met office, it happened due to the low pressure area in central India which moved westward over Cutch, Gujarat, South Rajasthan and the nearby region making ‘incursion of monsoon air into Sindh’.

It was a difficult little period in Karachiites’ lives. On Aug 25, the Mobile Eye Service of Pakistan in a statement noted with ‘great concern’ the outbreak of the epidemic conjunctivitis in the city. It advised citizens to make frequent use of water for washing hands. Immediate isolation in using handkerchief, towel and soap must be maintained, it said. The disease was caused by a filterable virus which reddened the eyes.

Another subject to do with medical assistance was discussed on Aug 26 when it was reported that a Pakistani doctor trained in China in acupuncture was trying the Chinese system of performing operations in minor cases at Civil Hospital. Sindh Health Minister Abdul Waheed Katpar said in an interview that if the doctor carried out operations successfully, he might be permitted to perform major operations as well. The minister added the country’s first fully air-conditioned hospital for women with an initial capacity of 100 beds was being built in Larkana, named after Shaikh Zaid bin Sultan Al-Nayhan, President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It would start functioning by end of September, he claimed.

And in a yet another story focusing on the health sector, on Aug 28, doctors at the Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to appoint a commission headed by a judge of the High Court to look into maladministration at the JPMC. In a resolution passed at their general body meeting, they also called for appointment of a governing body at the hospital without further delay as per [an earlier] directive of the prime minister.

As far as the always buzzing cultural side of Karachi went, on Aug 30, Kalaam, a collection of Urdu poems by Athar Nafees, was launched at Ghalib Library under the auspices of the Idara-i-Yadgar-i-Ghalib and the National Book Council of Pakistan. Eminent poet and writer Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, who presided over the event, described Nafees as a romantic poet. He was of the opinion that it was characteristic of the author of Kalaam to use the medium of romanticism to express all kinds of feelings. “It’s regrettable that literary critics discuss just some aspects of a [creative] work and usually miss the main points which the poet or the writer wants to convey,” he said. Zia Jallundhri said Nafees’s romanticism was practical and realistic. “He does not follow traditional Urdu romantic poetry in which the lover gives supreme sacrifices without asking anything in return,” Jallundhri argued. Jamal Ehsani critically analysed the poems included in the book. Salim Ahmed, Qamar Jamil and Asad Muhammad Khan spoke more about the poet’s personal journey, while Naseer Turabi paid tribute to the poet in blank verse. Nafees also recited a couple of his ghazals.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2025