IT is hard to point out when exactly was the first time the issue of insufficient funds for Karachi’s administrative bodies reared its head. What is known, though, is that on May 27, 1976, as reported in this newspaper, the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) requested the Sindh government for a grant-in-aid of Rs10m in order to avoid any delays in implementation of some of its major development plans. The request had been placed for the ongoing schemes that included construction work on Lyari Hospital, re-carpeting and widening of Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan Road, work on Love Lane Bridge, and implementation of the Lyari early action project which was being financed by the World Bank (WB) and the Sindh government. The corporation also submitted a number of proposals to overcome its financial difficulties. Some of the proposals were: primary education should be taken over by the government; recurring expenditure on Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Lyari General Hospital should be funded by the government; the property and motor vehicle tax should be restored to the KMC for cent percent realisation; the corporation should be able to increase the existing tax level, including water and conservancy rates; loans outstanding against the KMC should be written off; and the amount of service charges such as conservancy, fire and water rates payable by the federal government departments be paid to the KMC. It may be mentioned here that a few months back the corporation had introduced parking fee in the city but the provincial government suspended it.
The next day, May 28, the subject of funds was raised in a slightly different manner when Chief Minister of Sindh Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi inaugurated the new eight-storey Sindh Secretariat building. Talking to newsmen on the occasion, Mr Jatoi said yet another secretariat building would be built adjacent to High Court if and when funds were available. He said he wanted the new [inaugurated] structure to be centrally air-conditioned for ‘better working and efficiency’ but that plan might have to wait. “We needed this building badly,” he remarked. After the ceremony, the chief minister used one of the three lifts to his eighth floor office with the adjoining conference room and went around the floor. The facility had a covered area of 98,000sq-ft and was constructed at a cost of Rs10m in two and a half years. It had an auditorium, a library, telephone exchange, record stores, a canteen, a bank, a post office and a dispensary.
Newsmen’s club, too, grabbed the headlines that week. On May 29, various aspects of the life and work of poet Maulana Hasrat Mohani were highlightedat an event held at the Karachi Press Club (KPC). The programme was arranged in connection with the poet’s 25th death anniversary (May 13) by the KPC literary committee. It was presided over by Prof Manzoor Husain Shor. Prof Shor in his address stressed the need for following the message of the maulana. Others speakers were Maulana Hasan Musanna Nadvi, Prof Abul Khair Kashfi, Mukhtar Zaman and Zohair Siddiqi. The event was followed by a mushaira.
Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2026
