The inauguration, he said, marked the opening of “a new era in the history of telecommunications” in the country.

The new Karachi-Hyderabad Service, named “Subscriber Trunk Dialling”, enables telephone subscribers in Karachi and Hyderabad to make calls by direct dialling without the assistance of a telephone operator.

Khan A. Sabur dialled Hyderabad after the inaugural speech and had a trunk talk with the Deputy Commissioner, Hyderabad, and, later, with the Commissioner of Hyderabad Division when he was available.

Khan A. Sabur in his inaugural speech warmly complimented the Telegraph and Telephone Department for having arranged within a short time the production of the required equipment.

Earlier, welcoming the Minister, Mr Abdul Hamid, Director-General, Pakistan Telegraph and Telephone Department, said the automatisation of the national trunk traffic was necessary.

He said the trunk traffic between Karachi and Hyderabad was of the order of 3,000 calls per month in 1947-48. Today, it exceeds 30,000 calls per month. The number of trunk circuits has similarly registered an increase from four to 17 since 1947. — Staff Correspondent