THE summer season in Karachi takes a long time to go away to allow autumn to set in. But on July 1, 1974 the media, with a fair degree of happiness, claimed that on June 30 Karachiites received considerable relief from heatwave as the maximum temperature suddenly dropped by 18 degrees — it was 94 degrees Fahrenheit compared to 112 °F the day before. Sea breeze had forced its way into the city. Humidity in the evening was 71 per cent as opposed to 18pc 24 hours back. With the change in weather, a large number of people went to the beach for a dip.

The need for water increases in such a weather, but unfortunately that commodity became scarce in an important part of the city when on July 7 the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) severed water connection to the National Museum of Pakistan. The corporation said it had served a notice on the facility for the recovery of Rs 245,000 outstanding as water charges, and the step was taken after failing to get any response from the museum.

Actually what had happened a few days earlier made the whole exercise inevitable because on July 3 it was announced that the KMC in the ongoing week would serve final notices on government departments that had not yet paid its dues including water charges. A KMC spokesman said the matter was discussed in front of Sindh Chief Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi at a provincial cabinet meeting. The chief minister had directed Local Bodies Minister Jam Sadiq Ali to set June 30 as the deadline for the recovery.

The recovery (read: restoration) of heritage sites was also an important subject for those who ran Karachi in those days. On July 3, this newspaper in a story pointed out that the renovation of Kothari Parade in Clifton was almost complete. Work on the project costing Rs1.586 million had begun on Nov 28, 1972. During the process, the Jodhpuri stones that the building is made of were carefully removed and preserved; they were put back where they were to maintain the aesthetic balance of the structure. Some 30 pieces of red stone were, however, found missing. They were to be replaced by slabs of RCC in red colour.

The historic works of construction needed to be repaired and kept in fine shape because the Sindh capital at the time had a remarkable reputation in the eyes of foreigners in general and foreign dignitaries in particular. On July 6, the King of Malaysia and Madame Yang di Pertuan Agong left Karachi for London on a three-week visit after an hour-long stopover at Karachi airport. They were accorded a warm welcome on arrival from Kuala Lumpur and received, and seen off, by the Governor of Sindh, Begum Raa’ana Liaquat Ali Khan.

Begum Raa’na Liaquat Ali Khan was in the news the same week for another reason when in a message she expressed her shock at the death of Grand Mufti of Palestine, Haji Syed Amin al-Husseini (who passed away on July 4). She called it a great loss for the Muslim world.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2024