The parched and wearisome landscape of Karachi where the desert wind howls from dawn to dusk and all the night long, is today changing.

Over empty spaces dotting this city of distances, hutments are rearing up in profusion. Ninety-two lakhs of rupees has been earmarked to provide the habitation for the offices and persons who will run the Pakistan’s Secretariat.

When the League Council, at the memorable session in Delhi, decided to have Karachi as its capital, the greatest problem it had to encounter was that of accommodation. Already crowded Karachi had received an addition of population during war-time, as life in the mofussil had become increasingly insecure. Pot-bellied Sethias, globe-trotting Bhalbunds and shrewd Shikarpuris made a beeline to this city. Also Sindhi merchants, whisked away from the storm-centres of the world, set up their tiny shops in Karachi and did roaring business...

Mr Jinnah gave the order that before the zero hour struck on August 15, all the necessary accommodation for the incoming personnel from Delhi must be found. There was a rapid survey of the city and undeveloped plots not only fringing the Secretariat but the Lawrence Road were chosen to build houses and erect hutments.

Three-thousand workers were put on the job and barracks and buildings sprang up as though by the waving of a magician’s wand...

The history of the rise and growth of Karachi reads like a page from a romance. About a hundred years back, it was a neglected, unknown fishermen’s village ... The supply of drinking water was chiefly drawn from wells outside the rampart wall. The population was variously estimated between 8,000 and 14,000, while the total value of imports and exports amounted to Rs 120,000 per annum.

... contd.