IT is unusual for Karachi to receive heavy rains in the month of January. It happened on the night of Jan 14, 1975 because of which the low-lying areas of North Nazimabad, particularly Block F, were flooded. The locality was already faced with problems related to waterlogging. The situation was aggravated due to choking and overflowing of the sewerage system.

Storm-water drains were found plugged with sewage and soil at many places. Officials working at the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) said the French drains laid out along several internal roads in Block F had helped to a certain extent in extracting subsoil water and dropping it into Gujro Nala. The KDA had laid out 15,000ft-long drains in the locality at a cost of Rs350,000 in October last.

The authority was in the news the day before (Jan 13), too, when it warned the people that any encroachment on KDA land or extension of boundary walls beyond theallotted limit of a plot was an offence and defaulters would be dealt with in accordance with the law.

A different kind of construction hogged the headlines on Jan 16 as Stanley Tillekratne, leader of a visiting parliamentary delegation belonging to Sri Lanka said in Karachi that a proposal to set up a Buddhist University at Taxila was being considered by the government of Pakistan. In an interview before leaving for Colombo, he claimed that the piece of information was given to him by Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when the delegation called on him in the Sindh capital a couple of days back. He said Mr Bhutto told him that a branch of the `sacred Bo tree` from Sri Lanka had already been planted in Taxila. Mr Tillekratne was of the opinion that the step of the Pakistani government would provide valuable opportunities to countries in the region Sri Lanka, Burma, Nepal, Thailand and Japan for studying Buddhism.

Staying on the subject of education, on Jan 14, Sindh Governor Begum Ra`ana Liaquat Ali Khan said regional languages of the country enjoyed an important placebeside Urdu, the national language. Addressing the recipients of the Sindhi course certificates at Khaliqdina Hall the governor exhorted the people to learn the Sindhi language. `It`s very important to learn Sindhi in order to create the feelings of brotherhood among various sections of people in the province, to have acquaintance with one another`s views and for mutual closer relationship.` She was happy to note that with the passage of time not only the people had developed an interest in learning the language but their number was increasing.

She also read a paragraph of her speech in Sindhi.

On the artistic side of the Karachi happenings, on Jan 15, an exhibition of paintings by an American artist Mary C Archard opened at the Pak-American Cultural Centre (PACC). Forty of her artworks in oil, collages, watercolor, lithographs, etchings and drawings were on display for a week. Mrs Archard, a native of Wisconsin, studied painting from 1965 to 1968 in New York, Wisconsin and India and had held nine shows in the US, Singapore, Rawalpindi and Lahore.