25 January 2004	Sunday	02 Zilhaj 1424

KARACHI: Pakistan's three bourses may not be as labour intensive as the local textile industry has been, but they have on their lists thousands of persons, both skilled and unskilled, in different areas of activity.

"The bourses may not be playing a pivotal role in the country's jobless recovery, but they are certainly providing employment opportunities to both higher cadre professionals and IT technicians," KSE high-ups claim.

The number of associates rise and fall with the performance of the market. In boom conditions like the present jobs are available aplenty, but in times of recession, the number declines.

"It is pretty difficult to name the exact number of persons in the net of the bourses. One thing is clear - that the bourses are contributing their share to providing employment to both moneyed peoples, IT trained youth, corporate specialists and a number of professionals," says a top official of the KSE.

However, their role in reducing unemployment in the country may be insignificant in terms of percentage, they are silent players, which is more significant than their many competitors in the other fields of business and finance.

The bourses have their own network on their payrolls of permanent employees with all fringe benefits. Owing to total automation of stock trading, a number of new sections have been added to the main network. Notable among them are IT, corporate, public relations, data collection and company affairs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, also provides employment to hundreds of persons in addition to playing the role of watchdog.

The bourses have their own board of directors led by chairmen, MDs, directly elected and nominated, and a number of secretarial workers to carry out the daily business including routine office work.

The Central Depository Company is another offshoot of the bourses as all share transactions are carried out through it after the total automation to restore transparency to daily trading. It has also a full-fledged departmental network manned by professionals of calibre and IT specialists.

Then there are members of the bourses which own brokerage houses and carry out daily stock trading through their employees, who also include professionals.

The brokerage houses have agents who do marketing jobs for them and line up a new clientele after receiving necessary guidance and professional advice about market operations.