THE Indira-Abdullah deal in 1975 received a strong reaction from Pakistan. To condemn the deal and to reaffirm the Pakistani nation`s solidarity with the people of Kashmir, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, gave a call for a countrywide harta/on Feb 28 (1975).

All foreign airlines cancelled their flights to and from Karachi scheduled for Feb 28. The airlines which were to make a stopover at the Sindh capital included Iran Air, East African, JAL, SAS and Air France. Karachi port, too, was not functional on the day of strike nor was there any handling of the cargo. The Chief Minister of Sindh, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, said everything in the province would come to a standstill during the strike. All government offices, autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies and services controlled by the government in Sindh came to a halt to make the harta/a grand success.

Another pressing international issue was in the news when on March 1 the General Union of Palestine Students Karachi and the Arab Students Association of Pakistan jointly held a symposium on the `various dimensions of the Palestinian question` as part of the Palestine Week sponsored by the World Peace Council. Speaking on the political struggle of Palestine, Ahmed Ali Farra, the PLO representative in Pakistan, articulated: `The world has now recognised the right of the Palestinians to their homeland and has also legally recognised the PLO as their sole representative. Adnan Qadaha, President of the Arab Students Association, gave a historicalbackground of the issue and the struggle for its liberation. He paid tribute to the government and people of Pakistan for giving full support to the Palestinians.

President of Pakistan Peoples Party (Karachi) Kamal Azfar, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said the Palestinian struggle was a test case for the `unity of the Third World against the exploiters and imperialists.

These were subjects of global significance. In terms of national importance, on March 1, 15 workers` federations held a joint meeting at Katrak Hall to pay tribute to the 42 workers killed by the police at SITE on March 1, 1963. Chaired by S P Lodhi, Convener of the Sindh Trade Unions Rabita Committee, the meeting offered fateha for the martyred and passed a resolution demanding nationalisation of the textile industry, reinstatement of the retrenched workers and condemned the lathi-charge that took place the day before on textile workers in Hyderabad. It also urged the government to look into the problems of high cost of living, growing unemployment and corruption.

The provincial government was not sitting idle either.

Its focus was on another matter, though. On Feb 25, it was announced that the Sindh government would set up a cattle quarantine post at Juma Goth on the outskirts of Karachi to prevent influx of diseased animals into the Landhi Cattle Colony where a disease resembling rinderpest had already claimed many heads of cattle since the mid-1960s. P K Shahani, adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on Agriculture, addressing a press conference said the government had made an ad-hoc allocation of Rs3OO,000 to establish the post and to take other steps to combat the menace.