March 22, 2003	Saturday	Muharram 18, 1424

KARACHI, March 21: The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) has urged the government to investigate the surreptitious manner in which the registration had been granted to a company for operating futures contracts in different commodities.

In a statement issued on Friday, the chairman KCA Akbarali, while taking strong exception to the development was critical of the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in granting registration to the National Commodity Exchange Limited.

He alleged the registration has been granted in violation of all norms of transparency and recognized institutional practices.

Furthermore, he said there was no invitation through the national media of the intent on the part of the Commission to grant such registration and proper public hearing was also not conducted wherein all interested parties could express their views on the subject.

Akbarali Hashwani said the KCA had operated a hedge contract in raw cotton in 1934-75, when practically all ginning and trading operations were nationalized by the government.

He said hedge market was operated under the Cotton Act 1957, under the supervision of the Cotton Board who worked as regulator.

For some unknown reasons, the KCA chief said, the SECP has tried to hijack the powers of the Ministry of Commerce and arrogated to itself the function of establishing and regulating a futures hedge contract in raw cotton.

Raw cotton forms the backbone of the national economy, with the raw cotton and textile products contributing 65 per cent to the exports of the country, and the textile industry contributing around 8 per cent of the GDP, he maintained.