Sind Textile Board Ordinance, 1949

This 1949 Ordinance created the Sind Textile Board, a trading corporation set up to improve the procurement and wholesale distribution of cloth in Sind and the Karachi Division. Section 1 states it applies only to Sind and Karachi Division, and, unusually, is treated as having taken legal effect retroactively from 5 December 1947 -- meaning it formalised a Board that provincial authorities had already set up in practice before the law itself was passed (confirmed by Section 18, which deems that earlier Board to be the same as the one created by this Ordinance).

Section 3 makes the Board a body corporate that can sue and be sued. Under Sections 3-8, its governance runs through an elected Chairman and Vice-Chairman and an Executive Committee of nine other elected members, none of whom are paid for serving in that role. Section 8 sets membership eligibility: to join the Board, a person or firm had to be a wholesale cloth dealer, judged suitable by the Committee, and able to subscribe at least one lakh (100,000) rupees toward the Board's capital (Section 9) -- with membership capped at seventy members overall.

Section 11 places the Board under the general control of the Provincial Government and the Director of Civil Supplies, who can issue binding directions. Section 12 requires audited accounts kept at approved scheduled banks, and lets the Committee take loans against cash security or by pledging stock. Section 13 lets the Board make its own regulations on internal procedure, subject to government rules.

Section 14 sets out how the Board can be wound up -- either by government order (taking effect at least three months later) or by a majority resolution of the Board members (also delayed three months) -- and importantly, the Board is not treated as fully wound up until all debts to government or government-guaranteed bank loans are certified as repaid. Members remain jointly and severally liable to cover any shortfall in the Board's debts at winding up, even after resigning or transferring their shares. Section 16 excludes the Companies Act, 1913 from applying to the Board, and Section 17 protects anyone acting in good faith under the Ordinance from being sued.

This is a narrow, historical, sector-specific wartime/post-Partition economic control law aimed at a single industry board in one province. It has been amended several times since 1949 (visible amendment footnotes reference 1960 and 1964 changes), and given how dated and localised this Ordinance is, its continued practical relevance today is likely limited -- current status should be checked before relying on it.