THE month of March in Karachi is thought to be the forerunner to the summer season — it gets warmer by the day. But on March 10, 1975 the city weather took an unexpected turn when the mercury dropped considerably following thunder showers on the night of March 9 with a little more than one inch of rainfall recorded at Karachi airport. The Met office claimed that low pressure area on March 10 which had caused sudden rains in Karachi had now moved away eastward and its rear, dry continental air had set in over Balochistan and Sindh that might cause further fall in night temperatures.

The weather conditions were getting colder, but in the Sindh Assembly things began to get hot on March 11 after the government passed a bill amending the Sindh People’s Local Government Ordinance the day before, asking the officers and administrators to perform their duties of local councils and municipal committees until properly constituted councils assumed office. On March 11, the members of the Opposition boycotted proceedings of the assembly (for the second day) and staged a 30-minute demonstration against the bill and to highlight some other issues on the steps of the PA building while the house was in session. The protesting MPAs were: G A Madani, Al Haj Zahid Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Z H Bhopali, Usman Kennedy, Mufti Mohammad Husain, Mohammad Hasan Haqqani and Nawab Muzaffar Husain. They were carrying banners and placards demanding restoration of fundamental rights; repeal of black laws; restoration of members’ privileges; release of labour, political and student leaders; and check on price hike. Commenting on the bill, the group said it did not support any action which consolidated and strengthened the ‘undemocratic and dictatorial’ structure of the local bodies. It also demanded the creation of powerful local bodies in Larkana, Sukkur, Hyderabad and other big towns of Sindh and metropolitan council in Karachi on the pattern of those in Tokyo, London and Bombay (now Mumbai). On March 12, the MPAs demonstrated at Empress Market.

While legislators were busy passing bills or agitating against them, Karachiites were faced with a food-related issue. On March 13, it was reported that wheat flour with a high percentage of bran was being sold at the city ration depots, and that the ration dealers and flour mills were accusing each other for it. The dealers said complaints registered by consumers had been passed on to the food department officials. But the department maintained that its inspectors had always found the complaint books ‘more or less’ blank.

The Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) was also in the news for an entirely different reason. On March 12, it was learnt that the KMC had decided to preserve one of the discarded tramcars of the Mohammadali Tramway Company (MTC), which was winding up its business, to put it on display as an antique item. The corporation had not yet decided where to keep that car but was likely to initially place it at Polo Ground Park before shifting it to the proposed Botanical and Zoological Garden off University Road. In order for that to happen, the KMC was first going to request the company to donate one out of the remaining five tramway cars and might pay for it if the company did not donate it.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2025