KARACHI: Experts have played down the suggestion of changing Karachi’s name and instead have urged authorities to work to change the image of Karachi into a cleaner and peaceful city. Sindh Culture Minister Syed Sardar Shah in the recently concluded 2nd Sindh Literature Festival had presented a proposal to change Karachi’s name to its historical name of “Kalachi”. “Should we not propose a resolution to change Karachi’s name to the one it was historically called?” he had asked. Sindh has seen a few renamings in the recent times. Former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah changed the name of Razzakabad Police Training School to Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Elite Police Training Centre and in recognition of Dr Ruth Pfau’s services; the Sindh government changed the name of Karachi Civil Hospital to Dr Ruth Pfau Hospital. But, intellectuals have played down Sardar Shah’s suggestion of changing Karachi’s name stating that the process would unnecessarily cost Sindh government. Abdul Haleem Sharrar, a renowned historian, said after changing Nawabshah District’s name to Shaheed Benazirabad District, how many people now call it Benazir Abad?, not many, he stated. He said it was not easy to change the name of heavily populated cities as it may cost billions to completely remove references to the city’s old name. In addition, he said there was already a road named after “Mai Kalachi” to pay tribute to her. In the past, names of a number of places had been changed but the places were still known by their older names, he added. He said instead of focussing on such trivial things, Sindh government should rather focus on the real issues at hand. Urdu Dictionary Board Chief Editor Aqeel Abbas Jafri asked if the minister really knew the complete process of changing the name of a city, adding that it was not as easy as the minister probably thought. He advised that Sindh government establish new cities instead of changing names of the current ones. Yaqoob Ghaznavi, a senior journalist and author, expressed his disbelief that a minister was advocating to change name of the city instead of focussing on more important work that needed to be done. He said if the people wanted to get rid of the colonial history, they should also leave out the practises of that time. Moreover, he said changing Karachi’s name could see the start of a pointless trend to change other cities’ names. The name changing of the country’s most populous city may create new tribulations which people could find unnecessarily burdening, he said. Karachiites are already suffering a lot due to the ever increasing garbage problem and law and order situation, he added. Published in Daily Times, November 1st 2017.