WHEN the issue of poor quality wheat flour being supplied to consumers — as was mentioned last week in this column — persisted, on Oct 26, 1976, Syed Bashir Ahmad Shah, the Provincial Food Minister, warned the ration depot holders against supplying bad quality atta to consumers. He directed the food secretary and the director of food to personally keep an eye on the situation. The minister gave those orders after getting complaints from citizens about the problem that could affect their health. Mr Shah visited various flour mills after which he told a group of journalists that they [mills] could not supply questionable commodities because millers had the most modern wheat flour manufacturing plants. Replying to a question put to him by a reporter from Dawn, the minister said the wheat which was declared unfit for human consumption was being auctioned to be used as chicken feed or fertilizer. He claimed, thus far 3,000 tonnes of wheat had been damaged due to torrential rains and floods in Sindh.
This was not the only problem that the Sindh government was trying to resolve at the time. On Oct 27, it was learnt that the provincial government was considering to take strict measures, which might take the shape of an ordinance, to exercise control over house building and planning. To achieve that goal, it would either create a new agency or build up the existing one — the Karachi Development Authority — which would be entrusted with the task of maintaining quality control in the construction of houses. And the proposed new agency, if set up, would be authorised to exercise control over stringent licensing of architects, engineers, surveyors, constructors, builders and developers.
While the government was playing its part in sorting out civic problems, those belonging to the education sector came up with an interesting way to highlight the importance of the teacher-student equation. On Oct 29, the Association of Teachers of Nationalised Schools launched a barefoot movement to inculcate in teachers a high sense of duty towards their students, and to help improve the existing standard of school education. M I Memon, the Director of School Education, Karachi, who was the chief guest on the occasion, commended the association for starting the movement as well as for adopting the noble concept of ‘duties first, demands later’. He was of the view that if the same spirit was followed by the entire teacher community, then there was no reason why all the objectives of the education policy could not be achieved.
On Oct 30, a meeting of another group of teachers was held which had a completely different purpose. The Karachi University Teachers Society at a general body meeting demanded that the vice-chancellor of the university be elected by the teachers of the institution and all the chairmen be elected by the teachers of their respective departments. They also demanded the restriction that only a professor could be elected the dean of a faculty by senior teachers should be done away with; instead, the faculty’s teachers be made entitled to vote for the dean.
Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2026
