There was no issue of the newspaper on March 30, 1969 on account of Ashura. The following extract is from the previous day’s issue.

KARACHI: The country’s economy continues to make further improvement with the prices of essential commodities showing a downward trend and the share markets recovering from the recent slump.

At the Karachi Stock Exchange, the share prices, which had slumped by nearly Rs 50 crore in the past six weeks, recovered by as much as over Rs 35 crore in three days. Substantial gains have also been registered in share prices at the Dacca Stock Exchange. There was a decline in the Bonus Voucher Market in Dacca on Thursday while the jute market transacted a substantial volume of business.

Our representative says the prices of essential commodities, including certain varieties of rice, were showing a downward trend in Dacca and other places in East Pakistan. A marked fall has also been noted in the prices of certain varieties of cigarettes, particularly in the rural areas.

In Karachi also, prices of certain items including tea have registered a fall.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2019