HALF a century back, those who ran the education system in the province of Sindh were disturbed by an incident that took place on November 14, 1974 but was reported late by the media. A student of BA (second year) of Islamia Arts College in Karachi had attacked an invigilator of the Islamia Science College with a knife causing injuries to the latter. On Nov 18, the University of Karachi (KU) issued a statement claiming it had taken a ‘very serious view’ of the assault on the teacher and a drastic action was being contemplated against the student by the University Disciplinary Committee.

The same day, Nov 18, a statement from Sindh’s Education Minister Pyarali Allana also appeared in the newspapers. Mr Allana assured the college teachers that the government would provide full protection to them. “It has pained me considerably to learn of an incident at one of the examination centres in Karachi where a student attacked an invigilator. As these are KU examinations, the university authorities have been advised to take immediate steps permissible under rules against the registered candidate. A complaint has also been lodged by the teacher at the police station falling within the jurisdiction of the examination centre.”

The minister was at the centre of another event on Nov 20 when the first consignment of 33300 American textbooks was formally received by Mr Allana at Polo Ground. It was announced during the day that another consignment of 20,000 books had also reached the city through the Pakistani merchant vessel, Bagh-i-Karachi. The minister in his speech paid tribute to Rotary International for its efforts in arranging the gift of 100,000 [in total] textbooks and thanked the American publishing house, Harper and Row, for its invaluable donation. He was of the opinion that the gift would go a long way in meeting the shortage of books in the country.

From one house to another: on Nov 21, a studio at Karachi’s broadcasting house was turned into an art gallery for a group exhibition of paintings by seven young artists representing the city. The show was jointly arranged by the Karachi School of Art and Bazm-i-Talaba of Radio Pakistan. The seven creative individuals who took part in the event were Riffat Alavi, Nighat Yasmeen, Zaheen Ahmad, Mashkoor Raza, Farooq Awan, Ghalib Baqar and Ayaz Ahmad. Sindh’s Law Minister Abdul Waheed Katpar was the chief guest on the occasion while eminent critic Dr Akbar Naqvi read a paper.

Attack on invigilator, film unit and posters

The day before, Mr Katpar was the chief guest at the first National Film Posters Prize distribution ceremony, too. Speaking to the attendees the minister urged film exhibitors and distributors not to display indecent posters of their films as it was against our

cultural ethics.

Staying on the subject of the art of moviemaking, on Nov 22, a French film unit arrived in Karachi to make a documentary on Mohenjo Daro for global screening in connection with the fund raising campaign by Unesco to save and preserve the 5,000-year-old site. The Pakistani government played host to the unit but the entire film-making cost was to be borne by its producers.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2024