Staying on the subject of health, on Oct 19, it was announced that the active case search programme for smallpox being assisted by workers from the World Health Organisation (WHO) had been intensified and extended to the whole of Sindh. In the last two days of the campaign, they had visited 253 schools, 291 family physicians, 543 shops and restaurants and 14,047 houses in Karachi but found out about just three cases — one each in Hasrat Mohani Colony, Pak Colony and Civil Hospital. The areas were cordoned off and the residents were vaccinated against smallpox.

ON Oct 16, 1973, the nation observed the 22nd death anniversary of the first prime minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan. To mark the day, the Pakistan National Centre organised a symposium on his life and work. Speaking on the occasion, Governor of Sindh and the wife of Mr Khan, Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan said like the early years of the creation of Pakistan, there was once again a desperate need for unity to overcome the great problems faced by the country. This alone, she emphasised, was the way to see Pakistan flourish and prosper to ensure that the Quaid-i-Millat’s dying prayer was fulfilled. She said it was the first time she was speaking in public on the death anniversary of her husband. “I do not find it easy to do so, even now. He took over the task of holding the new country together in the face of gigantic odds. They included the death of the founder of the nation, the greatest refugee problem the world had ever known, lack of housing, paucity of funds and shortage of personnel. To attend to these problems, Mr Khan needed time. Instead, all he got was martyrdom which opened the floodgates of overwhelming ambition, disunity, greed and disruption.”

Another hero was highlighted by Dawn on Oct 21 whose story, too, was a bit saddening, albeit in a different manner. It read: “Old soldiers, they say, never die. But decorated heroes can sometimes end up in a junkyard. This is what happened to one of the subcontinent’s most honoured soldiers — and a Muslim. His bronze statue has been lying in the junkyard of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) for over 15 years. While the statue of Subedar Khudadad Khan has been there covered in litter, his name belongs indelibly to military history. Khudadad Khan was the first Indian to receive the Victoria Cross, the highest British gallantry award, in the early days of the First World War. Having been spotted, the statue is now being rescued from the junkyard and is to be restored to an honoured place in the Army Museum in Rawalpindi.”

One more prominent personality that made the headlines that week was a scholar who was unwell and recovering at a cardiovascular hospital in Karachi. On Oct 22, it was reported that Begum Nusrat Bhutto had expressed deep concern about the illness of Allama Rashid Turabi. In a telegraph message from Rawalpindi, she wrote, “I have just returned from abroad and heard that you were not well. I pray to the Almighty for your speedy recovery to serve the cause of Islam.”

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2023