This week 50 years ago: Disease and delimitation.

Byline: Peerzada Salman

WE are going through a tough period in our collective history where everyone is trying to steer clear of a deadly virus. Karachi, as has been mentioned before, is not new to unhealthy times.

On May 7, 1970 the media reported that scabies, a contagious skin disease, was gradually spreading in Lyari and Manghopir. The Skin Disease Hospital had received a large number of patients suffering from the itching ailment from almost all the localities of the city, but a majority of them belonged to Lyari and Manghopir. Doctors attributed the spread of the disease to unhygienic conditions and inadequate medical facilities.

On May 8, another sickness kept the city doctors on their toes. The Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and the Civil Hospital received seven patients of gastroenteritis from various neighbourhoods of the Sindh capital. Four of them, members of a family, were said to have suffered excessive vomiting and loose motions after consuming rabri brought from a footpath vendor in Juna Market. Three had eaten watermelons.

Speaking of localities, it has always been an arduous task for the authorities to mark out Karachi's neighbourhoods without ruffling someone's feathers. On May 7, Ahmed E. H. Jaffer, president of the All Pakistan Mohajir Board, criticised the draft delimitation of constituencies on the grounds that the principle of geographical contiguity had not been followed. In a statement he argued that in NW 129, Karachi II constituency for the National Assembly, Keamari and Bhutta village had been grouped with Malir Cantonment that were about 15 miles apart from each other. Similarly, NW 133, Karachi IV, (Ramaswamy and Loco Shed) had been linked to the housing societies while NW 134 (Ranchhore Line) was attached to the Frere and Clifton areas.

This was a criticism made through a statement. But the students of engineering colleges were in a more aggressive mood that week. On May 5...