It is highly unlikely to not be dazzled by beautiful arrangements of marigold flowers being displayed at the Frere Hall premises when you pass through Abdullah Haroon Road.
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) Parks and Horticulture Department has adorned the British-colonial era Frere Hall with various colours of marigold flowers, as it is celebrating the city’s first marigold festival that will last till Sunday.
The gardens of the Frere Hall are decked out in circles of orange and yellow marigold flowers, while the white ones are either delicately perched in the middle or at the boundary like white doves. These flowers are further circled with blue and white stones at which light is thrown after sunset.
Explaining different colours of marigold, horticulturist, Tofiq Pasha said on Friday that marigold is generally orange or yellow. “Now white colour has also been added, which is called ‘jafri’,” he said, adding that the idea of the festival is to display marigolds. Pasha has not only decorated his stall -- Tofiq Pasha’s World -- with marigolds, but he has introduced vegetables, a variety of indigenous plants and few exotic species, which, he said, people can grow at their homes.
“Flowers come when spring comes,” he said while talking to The News. The marigold blossoms in winter. It’s the beginning or the announcement of spring.” In the Frere Hall, he pointed out, people generally gather for protests or marches, but this time it is for flowers.
During the inauguration ceremony, Sindh law adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab said that the KMC had served the city’s people by holding the marigold festival at the Frere Hall. He held out the assurance that the provincial government fully supported the corporation in such activities. Keeping in view environmental pollution in Karachi, he said, the Sindh government was going to launch a ‘Sarsabz Karachi’ campaign under which massive tree plantation would be done.
Administrator KMC Laeeq Ahmed, Director General Parks and Horticulture Taha Saleem, Senior Director Culture and Sports Syed Khursheed and other officials were also present on the occasion.
Wahab said that they were witnessing a positive change in Karachi. He added that a lack of resources could not hinder the way of work if sincere measures were taken. He said the KMC and all district municipal corporations were serving the people of the city within their jurisdiction.
Ahmed said that citizens’ participation in such a large number showed their interest in flowers and plants. He thanked Wahab for appreciating the KMC. He said that a few months ago, the corporation was not able to pay salaries to employees, but now the chief minister had increased the grant for the KMC, and the officers’ salaries were paid and, hopefully, the backlog would also be cleared.
He said Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was looking into issues of the KMC, which was a welcoming sign. “We also appreciate the support of Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Barrister Murtaza Wahab for the KMC,” the administrator added.
The director general parks said that they had to make Karachi green and beautiful, and that the cooperation of different departments for the event showed that such events could take place in the city.