"And thou shalt not sell after dusk." Such has been decreed by the Honorable Governor of Sindh. The notice requiring full compliance was issued, as a result of several 'high' level meetings involving the parties concerned, after a severe energy crisis threatened to disrupt the city's civic peace. The press release did not explain itself but announced implementation from June 15. In a final blow, a week after the first press release, a second ordered immediate implementation.

It is only logical to assume that the 'concerned' party refers to the shopowners at some level. One is surprised to find that these men whose livelihood depends on the revenue generated by their shops were kept as much in the dark as everyone else. Denying them their basic right to electricity and restricting their access to their own property without so much as consulting them is a gross violation of their rights. The shopowners have been wronged and they know it.

"The blast last month, the strikes, the heat, the excruciatingly long hours of load shedding, the rickshaw rally, the budget and now this!" exclaimed Musharraf throwing his hands in air. "What have we Karachiwalas done to deserve this?" he asked me. It was not as much a melodramatic question as the rhetoric of frustration. Yes, what is the owner of a small embroidery shop in Bahadurabad, burdened by poverty unlike his popular namesake with a family of eight to support, supposed to do?

Sami Khan, who runs a beaded accessories shop in a mall in Clifton, agrees with Musharraf. "They have raised the cost of living and then cut down on business." The shoppers are mostly women who throng the bazaars in the evenings. That is how it is, Sami shrugs as if to point out the obvious. "Only 10 per cent of my customers come in the morning, and 25 per cent in the afternoon," he explains. The remaining 65 per cent of the sales are made in the evening between six and ten o clock. "8 'o clock is peak time for us," he protests claiming that in the past week he has had to send most of the customers away as he was forced to shut down.

Raheem, who runs a gift shop at park Towers, also criticizes the Shop Act. "Yes, the mall is centrally air-conditioned but people still prefer shopping in the evening. Office going people, locals avoiding the heat, and most importantly the foreigners who flock to our country at this time of the year, all start creeping in after six," he stresses. In Karachi dinner time begins after nine, which is when the crowd starts to thin and maybe that is a better time to shut down, he suggests. Unless buyer behavior changed, Raheem says the 20% drop in daily sales that he has experienced in the past week will have adverse effects on his shop.

Are buyers likely to change their attitude?

Erum, mother of two, admits to have arrived earlier than usual to the mall. But before one could jump to optimistic conclusions, she says that she had no other choice. "There is a wedding coming up in the family," she adds. "Pure necessity and nothing else has driven me out of my house to shop in this torturous heat." Erum, who had to drop her children at a friend's house to shelter them from the heat while she shopped, cursed the policy makers heavily and called the whole early closing business an annoying inconvenience.

Upon asking around, other shoppers had the same problem. Haider, who returns home around seven from work, is appalled by the Shop Act. "My wife is pregnant and we have to buy things for the baby. I will have to take an early day off to make that happen." I feel sorry for the women in my office, he added sincerely.

Working men and women, after the shop-owners, feel the most inconvenienced. "Why not close at nine?" Mehreen asked. "Why even that?" exclaimed her friend. The two working women who love to shop explained that when one window shops, one ends up buying things not really needed. "With a deadline, we would be scrambling for the necessities and no impulse shopping will be done which is where the sellers loose out."

Shopkeepers across town including Clifton, Jama Cloth, Khadda Market, Tariq Road, Bahadurabad, Hyderi and Paposh, are well aware of the imminent losses and trying to find out ways to cope with the calamity that has struck them. Ahmed, who has been selling cloth in Gulf shopping mall for several years, admits that he did attempt to open his shop earlier in the morning. "No one shops that early, so it was not feasible." The sales are dropping and we are offending customers who we have to send away after closing time, he explained. Ahmed said that he had been visiting the union office regularly to inquire if any measures were being taken towards seeking reversal of the policy. "We are small fish and I don't know if we can survive the losses," he said wistfully.

Analysts have indeed given thought to the potential losses to the economy. According to the papers, overall loss estimates are anywhere from 10 billion rupees to 80 billion rupees as the decision does not affect the shopkeepers alone. Some reports state that rickshaw and taxi drivers and public transporters will be hit by the closure too. Fewer people on the road after closing hours means little or no business. Moreover, the deserted, almost ghostly look, thanks to the timing issue, is not one that is sitting well with Karachiites who equate activity with safety. The hotels and restaurants, so far content with being exempt from the order, should therefore prepare themselves for a drop in sales too.

Shop assistants are but so many steps closer to unemployment. A manager at one of the largest superstores in Karachi confessed that although it was not officially discussed, if the policy was not reversed the store would be forced to cut down the wages of the shop assistants. "The lower end staff is paid on an hourly basis so they are already very miserable," he said, requesting anonymity. "It is not their fault but we have no choice either," he added.

Whose fault is it anyway?

Load shedding is not an unfamiliar concept for most Karachiites. Rather, it is one they have come to terms with. Summer and power breakdowns forever go hand in hand such that most citizens accept it with a pinch of salt protesting only when matters go out of hand.

The current spell of power failures was a real patience - tester. Breakdown in some areas lasted for an average of four to six hours and up to more than 14 hours in some localities. Even when there was electricity, the problem of low voltage persisted. A trip here a spark there became the story everywhere. The game of hide and seek that electricity played with the onset of this years summer is by far the worst of its kind. Accompanied by complete lack of sensitivity and response on the KESC's part has turned people to the streets on more than one occasion in the past few weeks. One such incident even involved baton charge and tear gas to disperse the angry mob. The protestors responded by hurling more stones.

Such terrible mismanagement is a cause of shame for the show-runners at KESC. It was but only a year ago on the eve of its privatization, that its new caretakers made bold claims to undo the misgivings of the past and take all steps necessary to make the situation better. Now, having successfully outdone the previous management, in a fresh statement, the KESC management has adopted a new strategy - one involving pointing fingers.

From the investors who brought electronic appliances to Pakistan to the banks who allowed them to finance purchase of these items to the actual end consumer, no one has been excluded in this blame game. The internal shortcomings of the organization and its inability to serve the growing demands are but of course WAPDAs fault.

In a new turn of events, the KESC, so far having hid behind the skirts of the Sindh Government, has now decided to bite the hand that feeds it. The KESC has snubbed the Shop Act as an inadequate measure claiming that shutting down shops alone will not serve their problem. A representative of KESC said that the difference between demand and supply is 200 MW. Closure of shops only conserves 75 MW of energy and that still leaves a major chunk unaccounted for, he explained.

Not only that, the KESC has suggested that the situation is unlikely to improve despite closure of shops. In a preposterous move, it has also stated that perhaps, if all shops including medical stores, malls, eateries, govt. offices and railways etc were shut down the power demand could be met adequately. Under the current action, however, the management assures that load shedding will continue.

One is only left to wonder what next will they suggest to make-up for their laziness. Maybe they would have demanded that Funland be shut down if it had still been around. Perhaps a closure of cinemas and hospitals or even mosques! Where is it going to end?

So what IS the point?

And so the load shedding continues. Munawwar who sells shoes in Metro Shopping Mall verified that there have been power failures lasting up to three hours in the past week despite early closure. "No electricity in the morning, no sales after eight - what are they trying to do?" Shahid, another shopkeeper retorts that "they keep a tab on us to make sure we close down, who will keep a tab on KESC?" Earlier he believed that some good will come from this move taken by the governor but now with the persistence of power failures, he is forced to think otherwise.

Khalid, President of the Gulf Shopping Centre, appreciates the Shop Act for its intentions. He also runs a cosmetic shop in the same mall and has said that although sales have been affected, it was a worthy trade in exchange for no load-shedding. "Rozi to Allah kay hath me hoti hai," he said "and umeed hai kay sooner or later people will change their habits." However, he verified that several shopkeepers were agitated by the break in power supply despite the forced closure. "There was no electricity from 11 am to 3 pm on Monday," he said. If this persists, we might have a problem, added. Khalid also stated that "it was unfair that the people were being penalized for KESC's inefficiencies. We pay our taxes, we pay our bills, so this is uncalled for," he argued.

When asked about who was monitoring closure of shops, Khalid explained that mysterious men claiming to be shop inspectors showed up to remind the shop keepers of the rule on Friday. "They have been paying us regular visits and there is a lot of confusion," he said. Some inspectors stated that we try to wrap up and not take more customers after eight and others insisted that we shut down completely by the said hour or we would be penalized, Khalid said. There have been reports of misbehavior too that we will look into, he added.

When asked what the penalty would be, most shop-keepers had no idea. Some said they would be fined but none could come up with a criterion or amount. Others said they would be sent to jail. Yet others said that they would be tried in front of the magistrate.

No one had told them and they had no idea who to ask. Amongst other questions were if it was possible to push the time till nine o clock and whether the use of generators would exempt them from the act.

A source inside the Park Towers management confirmed that the use of generators as an alternate energy source to evade the Act had been ruled out. "But the mall's organization was not going to let this go by," he said. Moreover, various other shopping areas' associations have already expressed their disagreement. Some have decided to take proactive measures and resort to shutter down strikes if the situation does not change.

This leaves one baffled as to the purpose of the Shop Act which, as the public was informed, was enforced to conserve energy so that civic peace was maintained. The people are inconvenienced, business is being adversely affected, the power-problem is still standing which is a perfect recipe for public chaos. No end has been achieved by the Governor's attempt but the Act continues to remain in place. It is at moments like these that one is forced to ask – not what were they thinking – but rather were they thinking? At all?

Footnote: The latest is that now shops are open till after eight o' clock every Saturday, but for the frustrated shop keepers, their clients and Karachiites at large, this decision is is better than nothing, but it is really nothing at all

Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad – the only international cricket ground in Sindh after Karachi – has been in a pathetic condition for quite some time now. This popular cricket venue of the '70s and mid '80s is now just a part of history. The anti-sports authorities have turned this only cricket ground into a marriage hall-cum-recreational center and have publicly allowed everyone to host all sorts of programs there including private school functions, public gatherings and even political congregations, much to the dismay of cricket fans and sports people.

Instead of wickets and players, Niaz Stadium is now home to catering vehicles such as trucks and pickups that can be found parked on the outfield. There was a time when this very stadium hosted various international matches including the first ever World Cup match played outside the United Kingdom in 1987. This was the time when people from all backgrounds would happily flock to the venue and watch the game while eating meals from daigs as well as food stands. The field that was once walked on by some of the greatest cricket legends of the country such as Javed Miandad and Abdul Qadir now has a different tale to tell. Today, brides and grooms in elaborate dresses and sherwanis are walking the field. Miandad's distinctive white helmet is replaced with the sight of a groom's pagri (turban). Figures from the events held last year alone are astounding and rather shameful. Approximately 42 couples took part in a mass marriage ceremony on the former international cricket ground in '05. A private social welfare organization planned an event in which couples from different parts of Karachi, Hyderabad and various cities and towns of interior Sindh tied the knot. According to sources, Hyderabad District Coordination Officer (DCO) of that time Mohammed Hussain Syed had permitted the organizers to set up the 'wedding hall' at the stadium. The trucks that bring in tents and daigs have damaged the grass of the stadium. Holes have occurred in the field due to the penetration of tent pegs. The doors of the stadium are broken, allowing wild animals to enter and enjoy the fading grass. At times, donkeys can be found grazing grass at the wicket and some times dogs are taking rest beneath the shadow from the galleries.

In the past, the stadium was often used as a helipad for VVIPs such as the President, Governor and Chief Minister could land on the spot. Citizens of Hyderabad have objected and protested against this practice but the authorities have ignored their protests. In '95, experts disclosed that rising of the groundwater level by accumulation of rainwater in the adjoining areas of Niaz Stadium has led to a serious problem of water logging and salinity. Consequently, the ground has ended up being polluted, grass cannot grow properly and hence, the ground has become unfit for playing cricket or any other game for that matter. The then Commissioner Hyderabad Division and Chairman Sports Committee called on the DRC management to bring a solution to this problem. It was decided that a sub surface tile drainage and rainwater evacuation system with disposal arrangement would be installed. After approval of the design and cost estimate, DRC completed installation by July 1995. It has been 11 years since then but the project still hasn't been finished.

On various occasions, related authorities have made claims to restore the lost importance of this stadium but one is waiting for that day to come.

In 2002, Chairman PCB, Lft General Tauqir Zia announced the launch of a mega project with the primary goal of restoring and developing fourteen grounds across the country. These announcements have only remained claims and no practical work has been completed at Niaz Stadium under PCB's Vision-2005.

The sports lovers of the city are looking for some miracle so these illegal activities could be stopped at this stadium. In the recent past, Honorable Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Justice Iftekhar Mohammad Chaudhry, while taking a suo moto action issued arrest warrant for Director General Health Services, Sindh, Hadi Bux Jatoi who hosted the wedding of his daughter with the son of Federal Minister Liaquat Jatoi at Niaz Stadium.

Law making is the responsibility of the Parliament and implementation of these laws is the ethical and moral duty of the executives. Acting against those violating laws is the responsibility of the provincial and district governments. One is always left wondering why is it always the courts that have to take public litigation cases on their own and that too when it is publicized by the media, when there are provincial and district governments and executives to cater to the matter? What are the responsibilities of these public servants?

With no proper recreational facilities available to the masses, cricket is perhaps the only outlet for youth to spend their time. It is a known fact that if there is any game that Pakistanis are passionate about, it is cricket. Instead of providing more ways to the youth to take part in sports, the authorities are turning their backs on those who've made sports venues into shaadi halls. It is high time that an action is taken against those involved in such matters and that the people of Hyderabad are once again given a chance to go back to that stadium for the purpose it was built for – watching and playing sports!

How it once was Kolachi recounts the history of Niaz Stadium and the great cricketing moments it has witnessed

This stadium was built in 1960 by then commissioner, Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui, after whom the stadium was named. For the uninformed, Niaz Stadium hosted the1000th test match in cricket history. That perhaps was the only claim to fame for this ground, though it has also hosted 12 one day internationals and six test matches and can accommodate 50,000 spectators. Another interesting and a proud fact associated to this ground is that Pakistan has never lost a match in this field.

The first international test match was played on this field in 1973 against England. This was the match in which Mushtaq Mohammad scored 157 and Intikhab Alam 138, which resulted in a draw. The last test played here was between Pakistan and New Zealand in November 1984. The highlight of the match was Miandad scoring a century in both innings of the match.

Niaz Stadium also became the venue of 1987 World Cup inaugural match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Sri Lankans had some fantastic opening bowling tricks up their sleeves but the match just as easily turned in Pakistan's favour with Miandad's 103 off 96 balls, which included 6 fours and Pakistan won the match. It was his sixth ODI century. Former PM Muhammad Khan Junejo also visited the ground during the Reliance World Cup.

The last ODI at Niaz Stadium was played between Pakistan and India in September '97. Openers Saeed Anwar and Afridi's undaunted stroke play was the dominant factor in Pakistan's five wicket victory. The prospect of an intense contest had diminished in the morning session when Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq and Aaqib Javed limited India's score to 170 runs.

In the Karachi of the old days, the city of my youth, one often used to hear people whistling a jaunty tune as they cycled home at night after a movie. Many things in Karachi have changed since then, mostly for the worse. Which probably explains why nobody in Karachi whistles anymore - or, if they do, they do so in secret, as if it were a crime. Indeed, whistling has become so rare now that a whole generation of Karachiites has grown up not even knowing how to whistle - at least not in the way that many members of my generation could whistle entire songs in the old days, including catchy ditties like "Awaara Hoon Mein", "Jambalaya" and "The Happy Whistler" Some of us could even whistle classical pieces like Ravel's "Bolero" and Dvorjak's "New World Symphony"..

The carefree Karachi of that happy-whistler era has gone forever, lost in the mist of time. Today's Karachi is a beleaguered, angst-ridden city, where most urban problems seem bigger and more intractable than those in any other Pakistani city, though Lahore has been coming along nicely in recent years, thank you very much.

Whistling is not the only thing that isn't heard in Karachi anymore; jazz isn't heard here either. Back in the 1950s, however, Karachi had many jazz musicians. Most of them belonged to the city's Goanese community and lived in a section of Saddar some people called "Little Goa". Romeo Pereira's bakery in Saddar was famous for its "black bread". Rodrigues, a tobacconist on Elphinstone Street, was the shop you went to for your favourite blend of pipe tobacco and other smokers' requisites. Where does one go to buy black bread now? Does today's generation of Karachiites even know what black bread is?

In the 1950s the US State Department had a programme under which leading American jazz groups were sent to give concerts in cities around the world. Under that programme, such legendary jazz groups as Duke Ellington's Band, Dizzy Gillespie's Band and the Dave Bruebeck Quartet (of "Take Five" fame) came to perform in Karachi and Lahore.

Duke Ellington's 60-member jazz band gave two concerts at Karachi's Metropole Hotel in 1959. The band included such famed musicians as Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves on the alto sax. At the Newport Jazz Festival in the US state of Rhode Island in 1957, Ellington's band gave an open-air concert attended by 150,000 people. One of the pieces they played was an Ellington composition entitled "Diminuendo in Blue, Crescendo in Blue". During the course of the piece, Paul Gonsalves cut loose with an incredible 57 choruses on the alto sax that brought the cheering audience to its feet.

When Ellington's band came to perform in Karachi, some of us jazz groupies informed him during a practice session at the Metropole that we had a local jazz musician named Paul Gonsalves who also played the alto sax. Intrigued, Duke Ellington asked us to bring him over. When Ellington heard him play, he was so impressed by the quality of his playing that he invited him to play at the concert that evening. The American Paul Gonsalves and the Karachi Paul Gonsalves were seated next to each other at the concert. Their free-wheeling jam session brought the house down.

The Karachi Paul Gonsalves is still around, or was until a few years ago when I came across him one afternoon playing at the Pearl Continental Hotel's coffee lounge. But he was now playing soft background music - a far cry from the foot-stomping jazz numbers he had played with the other Paul Gonsalves when Duke Ellington's Band came to town nearly five decades ago.

If you want to look for Country Club Road in the Karachi of today, you won't find it; it's called University Road now. But the name isn't the only thing that has changed.

Forty-five years ago, Country Club Road was a lonely, 12-foot-wide track, leading out of the city toward Malir Cantonment through a virtually empty landscape frequented in the evening mostly by courting couples who wanted to be alone. Nobody bothered the courting couples in those days, not even the city police.

Heading out of town on Country Club Road in those days, the built-up area ended at the Sui Gas pipeline terminal. Beyond that there was nothing until you got to the Country Club, a small tiled-roof structure that housed the Karachi Flying Club. A dirt strip next to the building served as the runway for the flying club's two-seater planes - a few Tiger Moths of World War II vintage. Beyond the club, there was again nothing until you got to the Karachi University campus, on which construction had begun in 1956.

Today's University Road is a noisy, traffic-choked, six-lane artery running through some of the city's most densely populated areas, including Gulshan-e-Iqbal - a huge misnomer of a development that wasn't even a glimmer in planners' eyes in the 1950s, or even until the late '60s.

In this context, I am reminded of some lines from a poem by the early twentieth-century American poet Vachel Lindsay: "...Then, up around the apple-earth they come, / Blasting the whispers of the morning dumb, / Cars in a plain, realistic row, / And fair dreams fade when the raw horns blow." You can't hear people whistling over the roar of traffic and the screech of Japanese air horns.

In 1813 Karachi occupied an area of some 30 to 35 acres and its population was an estimated 13,000. The 1901 census recorded the population as 136,297. In 1941 it was 435,887. By the time of the first post-Independence census in 1951, it had risen to 1,137,667 - an increase of 161% over the 1941 figure. Today, it is an estimated 15 million - meaning that Karachi's population has grown more than 1,000 times since 1813 and now accounts for nearly 10% of Pakistan's population.

Today's Karachi is an urban sprawl of some 1,200 square miles, nearly 22,000 times the 1813 figure. It needs some 600 million gallons of water a day and close to 2,000 megawatts of electricity. It is the country's financial, commercial and industrial capital, and generates 70 per cent of all government revenue. It has more than a million vehicles, including some 55,000 auto-rickshaws, 16,000 intra-city buses, 10,000 minibuses and close to a thousand inter-city buses. By any standard, then, Karachi is a mega city.

But mega cities tend to have mega problems, and Karachi is no exception. Over 200 million gallons a day of untreated highly toxic sewage flows into Karachi harbour through the Lyari River, which now has the dubious distinction of being the most polluted river in the world (having overtaken England's Mersey River in the mid-1990s). In many parts of the city traffic conditions during peak hours are now approaching gridlock. Landfill projects have severely damaged coastal mangrove forests and altered the ecology necessary to sustain many species of marine life. The list goes on and on – but you get the picture.

A British army led by General Charles Napier annexed Sindh in 1843. In February 1843, Napier declared Karachi the capital of the new British territory, in place of Hyderabad, capital of the Talpur rulers. In August 1947 Karachi became the capital of the new state of Pakistan.. In 1959, General Ayub Khan (he hadn't yet promoted himself to field marshal) decided to shift the capital to the then non-existent Islamabad. Doxiades Associates, a firm of Greek town planners, was hired to prepare the master plan for Islamabad. Work on the new capital began in 1963.

The irony is that more than half of the land in Karachi is still owned or administered by federal agencies, including Port Qasim Authority, Pakistan Steel Mills, Civil Aviation Authority, Pakistan Railways, Defence Housing Authority, various Cantonment Boards, the Ministry of Housing and Works (which controls PECHS), and the Karachi Port Trust - which, under a 1895 ruling by a British official that has never been countermanded, technically owns all the coastal land in Karachi "up to the high-water mark".

On April 19, 1986, Karachi schoolgirl Bushra Zaidi was crushed to death under the wheels of a minibus. Karachi has never been the same "City of Lights" since then.

62-year-old Ahmed Din is a peon at the Sir Syed College for Women. He moved to Karachi from his native land of Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir when he was only a young boy and worked as a labourer to earn his living. Though he studied till class 5, Ahmed could never pursue education and make more of himself than a peon due to poverty and extreme living conditions. But he never lost hope. In fact, this stroke of ill fate made him a much stronger man than he thought he could be. So much so that despite the lack of resources, he made sure that all his children received basic as well as professional education.

And even though he was hired as a peon, today Ahmed also works in the Accounts department of the college. It was his level of honesty and commitment to the college that made the authorities take notice of him and elevate his position from that of a peon. Whenever the need arises, the services of Ahmed Din are taken. He retired in June 2003 but was again hired at the same college. Kolachi caught up with Ahmed Din who reveals many aspects of his life...

Kolachi: When did you come to Karachi?

Ahmed: I came to Karachi in 1956 with my relatives in search of a job, while my family was living in Azad Kashmir (Muzaffarabad). For a long time I did labour work here but then fortunately I got a job.

Kolachi: How did you get a job here?

Ahmed: The chowkidar (guard) of Lal Kothi was my uncle. Initially I lived with him and worked as a labourer for which I was paid one rupee a day. It was a hard job; I had to lift cement and bricks all day long. Then I went to Rizviya colony and found a job as a watchman at a house but wasn't paid well. Later, the lady owner of the house told me that there was a vacancy for the position of a watchman at Sir Syed College for Women. I went there and was selected for 65 rupees per month. When the government took over the college, my salary was raised to 120 rupees.

Kolachi: Back in the days when you came to Karachi, was your salary enough to survive on?

Ahmed: It was really very difficult to make ends meet but I was lucky enough to have a single room house that had electricity and a small veranda attached to it. I lived there with my wife. With the grace of God and the cooperation of the teachers at Sir Syed College, my children also received education. In this college there are other peons as well but they've never paid attention to the education of their children.

Kolachi: When did you get married and how many children do you have?

Ahmed: I got married three times in my life. First in 1951 but after my wife's death in '55, I got married again in '57. She also died in '71. Then I got married once again in 1975. And by the grace of God she is still alive. I have five children – two sons and three daughters – all of whom are getting education. My oldest son has done B.Com and is working at Sir Syed College. He is planning to do his MBA. One of my daughters is doing her MA in International Relations while the other one has done her B.Com and is working at ABN-AMRO Bank. Two of my children are still in school.

Kolachi: How was the experience of coming to a city like Karachi?

Ahmed: It was a radical change. I was never used to the commotion of city life. And even though, Karachi wasn't as big as it is now, the difference was huge. In Muzzafarabad, things were cheap. I still remember that I used to buy aik mun makai for only 1.25 rupees. Although doctors were not available in Muzzafarabad because it is a mountainous area but their absence didn't really make any difference. The people residing there rarely ever got sick. They earned their livelihood by shepherding goats and sheep. My father was a trader. He used to buy domestic animals and sell them onwards. But here in Karachi, there is no tradition of earning one's living by such means. I had to face several problems and it took me a long time in getting settled here. The lifestyle was and still is entirely different from my native land.

Kolachi: What kind of problems did you face when you moved to Karachi?

Ahmed: I had to go through a lot of financial problems. I had my family and wife to look after here as well as my parents and siblings in Azad Kashmir. I always wanted to give my family all the facilities that a person gets when living in a huge metropolis. I did succeed to a certain point but of course, I couldn't provide them with all the luxuries. There were other problems that I had to deal with including tuition fees for my children and arranging for their books, which were and still are very expensive. The teachers of Sir Syed College had always helped me in this regard.

Kolachi: Has Karachi changed over the years?

Ahmed: Karachi has grown now. Back in the early days when I moved here, the idea of living in Karachi was perceived as living in London. I have developed such a strong bond with this city that I simply cannot think of living anywhere else. Despite all its problems (pollution, sewerage pipes, water shortage), I still love it. It is us who have made the living conditions deplorable. The problems existed even in the old days but we've made them worse. And today, it is our responsibility to make it a peaceful city, the city that we can proudly call 'the city of lights'. I can see now that not only the government but also the citizens and especially the youth is enthusiastic about bringing a change.

Kolachi: Didn't you ever think of going back to Azad Kashmir?

Ahmed: Yes, I did. There have been times when my native land has needed me. And at such instances, I have never hesitated to return. In 1971, I went back, participated in the war at Razakar and when it ended, I came back. They have my name in the records. I also know that any day in the future if my hometown needs me for any reason, I will most certainly go back.

Kolachi: What kind of effect has the earthquake had on your hometown?

Ahmed: Enormous! The earthquake has done an irreparable damage to Muzzafarabad. But my house was already in a run down condition since a very long time and I never managed to save enough money for its repair and maintenance. Once the devastation happened, I collected aid to the best of my ability and sent it to my brother and other relatives who were living there at that time. But the way Karachiites helped the affected people really surprised. I always thought that the people here were all about work with no feelings. I was wrong. They work devotedly and are always ready to help others.

Kolachi: What is your day like?

Ahmed: I go to work at eight in the morning and I am there till five in the evening. After work, I go to the market for various tasks. In the evenings, after offering my prayers, I go to sleep. I have a habit of getting up early for Fajar prayers. I go to work on Sundays as well.

Kolachi: What places do you like to visit in Karachi?

Ahmed: I have several relatives and friends here, who I like to visit. Unfortunately, life in Karachi has become so busy that one can't just stand up and go to anyone's place. Besides visiting friends and family, I love to take a walk along the beachside in the evenings.

Kolachi: What are your future plans?

Ahmed: My biggest wish is to perform Hajj. But before doing that I have other responsibilities towards my children. I want to see all of my children obtain a masters degree. I want them to get married and be as successful as possible. That is all I want from my life now.

Kolachi: Anything you would like to share with Kolachi?

Ahmed: Well, not only students but also parents and citizens in general, should respect teachers. These educators work towards making the different sectors of our society better. They compel people to think and learn. Nowadays, we hear of clashes amongst students and teachers, students misbehaving with their teachers, which will only ruin their lives. Students should concentrate on their studies.

Coming from Muzzafarabad in the late fifties, Ahmed Din has taken his time in settling in this huge metropolis. He leads a simple life. And while Muzzafarabad will always be his ultimate home, he still considers Karachi a place close to his heart. His dreams may have never seen daylight but he has made sure that his children get the best in this life, no matter what the cost. Fighting their way against all odds, struggling yet smiling, constantly working and never tiring is how so many Karachiites live because such is Karachi's character.