There was no issue of the newspaper on Aug 15, 1968, on account of Independence Day. The following extract is from the previous day’s issue. However, the extract from the 1943 archives is taken from the Aug 15 issue of the paper in that year.

KARACHI: The Karachi Police is contemplating action under the Defence of Pakistan Rules against anti-social elements who have created an artificial cigarette shortage.

The two cigarette factories, which remained closed for over a month due to labour trouble, resumed production from August 6 and 9.

A spokesman of one of the companies said yesterday [Aug 13] that they were producing between 17 to 18 million cigarettes daily, the largest share of the production being given to Karachi. At present their distributors were supplying cigarettes directly to the retailers, he said.

Normally, the distributors supply cigarettes to the wholesalers on cash payment, and the wholesalers sell to the retailers on credit.

An official of the other cigarette company said that at the moment only one shift was working at their factory. However, the supply of cheap brands has been normalised.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2018