THOSE who often wonder about Karachi’s past glories usually talk about the city’s colonial period. Even after independence, efforts were made to make it more urban and liveable with interesting fun-eliciting infrastructural development for the burgeoning population. On Sept 16, 1974, a report published in this newspaper highlighted that the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) would start constructing an aquatic park at Clifton at an estimated cost of Rs5 millionfrom the next month. The proposed project adjacent to the already existing aquarium in the same locality, Clifton (once a famous Karachi visitors’ spot), had been planned to provide recreational, educational and research facilities in marine science. Designed by a local consultant, it would include water pools, paddling pools, picnic corners, fountains, extension of aquarium exhibits, a dolphin pool, children’s amusement area with a mini rail and a shark channel. Wow! One wonders what happened to that plan!

Interestingly, while this was happening, on Sept 22, a survey painted a bleak picture of the facilities related to animal well-being in the Sindh capital: only four of the more than 50 water troughs and just two of the dozen animal sheds were in working order. On the other hand, stats showed there were a total of about 7,500 animal-drawn vehicles — tongas, victorias, camel carts, donkey carts, etc. At the time of the country’s inception, the KMC was maintaining 80 water troughs and six animal sheds in its jurisdiction. With the passage of time, troughs suffered due to neglect on the part of the municipality and their never-ending misuse by a large number of people who had set up jhuggis on pavements.

On the cultural side of the Karachi spectrum, on Sept 16, the growing influence of calligraphy on the styles of Pakistani painters was brought into focus at a symposium titled ‘Calligraphy in Modern Art’ organised by the Goethe Institut. Mohammad Ashraf began proceedings by giving a background to Islamic calligraphy using illustrations. The other speaker, the renowned visiting German scholar, Dr Annemarie Schimmel, spoke on ‘Poetry, religion, and calligraphy: thoughts about Sadequain’s work’. Dr Schimmel pointed out the significant role played by imagery of letters and writing in Islamic poetry through the ages, saying, “calligraphy is the Islamic art par excellence” whether to be read or used for ornamental purposes to preserve the mystical power of the letters. Talking about Sadequain’s art, she argued that Pakistani artists had tried to adopt a course quite different from the patterns followed by painters in Iran, Egypt, Sudan and Morocco. “Sadequain’s calligraphies developed out of Quranic verses are both textual interpretation and painting, and reflect the meaning of the respective verse by their very shape.”

And on Sept 17, more than 5000 stamps, post cards, envelopes with special cancellations fetched Rs1300 at the first auction of old stamps held in the city. Karachi’s philatelists turned up in a large number to offer their bids for the collection of stamps belonging to the late R B W Teasdale, a foreign resident of Lahore. The collection was divided into various lots pertaining to Pakistan, Britain, India before and after partition. The ones related to the UK fetched the highest bid of Rs300 each.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2024