IT is astounding to notice that, despite the rapid changes coming everywhere in the world with reference to technological developments and political conflicts nationally and internationally, there are certain things that seem to have a repetitive nature. On April 18, 1975, for example, a little more than 100 citizens of Karachi hosted a reception in honor of Sindh Chief Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi. Addressing his hosts, Mr Jatoi said the provincial government was giving more attention to Karachi`s problems compared to other parts of Sindh, and assured that further efforts would be made to develop `Karachi into a still greater city`. He said it was true that Karachi contributed amajor portion of taxes but pointed out that all the money did not come to the provincial exchequer. He said the quota system in various phases of our nation life `will come to an end one day`. `If you have any grievance and if you think an injustice has been done, you are welcome any time to come to me for redress.` The chief minister was of the view that the Islam-pasandparties had misled most of the new Sindhis, particularly of Karachi, by projecting the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as an anti-Islamic party. These new Sindhis who had come to the city after leaving their hearth and home only in the name of Islam were influenced by the propaganda and therefore voted [in general elections] for parties other than the PPP, he added.

The fact was, the development in varioussectors of the city was needed. On April 14, 1975 this newspaper reported that Karachi would have additional 14100 working telephone connections during the next financial year following the expansion of the 10 existing telephone exchanges and the setting up of two new ones by June 1976. The (then) current installed capacity of the 16 exchanges in the city was 88,800 lines against which there were 62,555 working connections.

The 62,555 lines for a population of about four million meant that the ratio was: 16 telephones per 1,000 persons.

From the mode of communication to the mode of transportation. On April 15, Badiul Hasan Zaidi, the Provincial Minister for Transport, in a statement claimed that 100 more buses had been added to the fleetof buses plying in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur divisions in the last month. Of those, 62 were provided to Karachi, 18 to Hyderabad and 20 to Sukkur.

On the cultural side of city life, on April 15, a symposium on the role of literature in national unity was held at the National Centre. Addressing the attendees, Dr Abul Lais Siddiqui representing the University of Karachi said Pakistani writers and poets had [always] supported the cause of national cohesion. He opined that writers should be given liberty to express honest views on problems facing society. Poet Shanul Haq Haqqi in his speech lauded the part that writers had played in propagating the ideology of Pakistan but felt that readers were not contributing their due share as `most writers are facing financial problems`.