IT was an eventful week on multiple levels. First of all, the issue of the rights of the migrant community had now become a prominent one. Contrary to what some of us think, it did not rear its head in the 1980s; it started in the 1960s and a decade later had an unavoidable presence.

On June 11, 1970 it was reported that the Mohajir representatives of Karachi had decided to form a political party — the Pakistan Mohajir Front. It happened at a meeting chaired by SM Sohail held to discuss the desirability of forming such a party to safeguard the political, economic, social and other interests of the Mohajirs. The meeting also decided to make Maulana Zahir Qasmi its convener, and to appoint a committee consisting of Maulana Qasmi, Hamid Husain Farooqui (advocate), Ziaul Hasan Chishti (advocate), Dr Safdar Farooqui, M. Ghulam Murtaza and SM Sohail to prepare the constitution of the party.

This was done at a time when the fast-growing population of Karachi was putting tough demands on the city, causing paucity of one commodity or another. Water shortage was the starkest of them. On June 9, residents of New Karachi, carrying empty water containers, marched to the office of the divisional commissioner, who was also chairman of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), to highlight water scarcity in their area. Commissioner Masud Nabi Nur assured the protesters of all possible aid and assistance on the part of the city administration in resolving their difficulty.

That was not the only kind of problem the city was faced with. On June 13, a big fraud in the Settlement Office came to light in which brokers, well-to-do people and officials of the Settlement Organisation were allegedly involved. The Pakistan Special Establishment registered a case of fraud, forgery and impersonation under the Anti-Corruption Act against the perpetrators of the crime. According to a report of the deputy settlement commissioner, Karachi Centre, someone prepared a bogus compensation book in the name of SW Husain with forged signatures of the officers. The book was then used at Abbottabad and property worth hundreds of thousands of rupees was adjusted against the claim. In Abbottabad, the accused produced papers purported to have been sent from the Karachi office and got the adjustment against the book. In the meantime, the deputy settlement commissioner of Abbottabad sent a reference regarding adjustment upon which inquiries were made revealing the fraud. Arrests were expected to be made.

Promoters of art too were in a spot of bother that week. On June 11, the Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association, Karachi, claimed that the government would suffer a loss of nearly Rs1.7 million in the ongoing financial year in Karachi alone because of the imposition of ‘capacity taxation’ on cinemas. In a statement it pointed out that under the old system of collection of entertainment duty the government earned over Rs16.1 million from 64 cinemas in 1968-69. After the introduction of the new scheme of levying of entertainment duty as ‘fixed capacity tax on cinemas’ with effect from July 1, 1969, the collection of entertainment duty during the fiscal year had been estimated to the tune of Rs14.4m.

On a happier note, on June 7 the two-day birthday celebrations of poet Nazrul Islam began at the Nazrul Academy with a symposium on the poet’s life and work. On June 8, Roshan Ali Bhimjee, MD of Eastern Federal Union Insurance Company, speaking at a musical soiree which concluded the celebrations, said Nazrul was one of the greatest poets of the subcontinent. Earlier, students of the academy’s music class presented a thematic rendering of a Nazrul geet.

Staying on the subject of performing arts, on June 11 a well-known New York-based drama critic Dr Henry Popkin argued in his lecture titled ‘Trends in Dram’ at the American Centre that the emphasis in American theatre was gradually shifting from entertainment for mass audiences to tailored drama for specialised audiences. He was of the opinion that there’s a growing tendency in Americans towards cultural diversity. The year before last, the 10 best plays in New York included four by British playwrights, three by American and three were off-Broadway productions.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2020