KARACHI: Amid ongoing dispute over the Karachi Cotton Exchange building, Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab has challenged the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), declaring their recent sealing of the heritage cotton exchange building on I.I. Chundrigar Road “unlawful” and claimed that the building is municipal land owned by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

In a letter addressed to the FIA, the mayor asserted his constitutional role as the custodian of the city’s assets and institutions, stating that he was duty-bound not only to protect KMC property but also to safeguard organisations that play a critical role in the national economy.

His intervention comes days after the FIA and ETPB carried out a joint operation claiming to have “recovered” the Karachi Cotton Exchange building, describing it as a “federal trust property”.

According to the mayor’s letter, a meeting was recently held with representatives of the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) and officials of the KMC Land Department, during which it was disclosed that an FIR had been registered on December 13, 2025, on the complaint of the ETPB through its administrator.

Mayor writes to FIA, saying record shows the property is ‘municipal land’ transferred to KCA in 1936, lease renewed by KMC in 1982

In the FIR, the ETPB claimed that the KCA was not in lawful possession of the property bearing Plot No. 6 SR-4, Sarai Quarters, now known as I.I. Chundrigar Road.

However, the KMC land department, the mayor said, categorically confirmed that the property is municipal land and was transferred in favour of the KCA on July 31, 1936. The lease of the land was subsequently renewed by the KMC in 1982, and according to official municipal records, the property stands in the name of the KCA.

“Therefore, the contention of the ETPB that the property belongs to it does not have any factual or legal basis,” the mayor wrote, rejecting the federal agency’s claim outright.

He further pointed out that a long-standing dispute between the KMC and the KCA over payment of various municipal charges had already been litigated through Suit No. 293 of 2006 in the Sindh High Court. Significantly, he noted, the ETPB never lodged any claim in those proceedings, a fact which, in his view, clearly establishes that the property never belonged to any individual or evacuee entity whose assets would vest in the ETPB after the Partition.

“If the property belonged to the ETPB, they would have asserted their claim before the court much earlier,” the letter stated, adding that their silence over decades spoke for itself.

Barrister Wahab also underlined the broader economic implications of the FIA’s action, stressing that the KCA plays a pivotal role in Pakistan’s cotton economy. He noted that banks, insurance companies, textile mills, exporters, ginners and growers across the country rely on the KCA’s daily cotton price fixation mechanism carried out under approved regulations.

The FIA and ETPB earlier this month had claimed that the KCA was illegally occupying the building and renting out offices to tenants without lawful authority. The KCA strongly rejected the allegation, asserting that it was incorporated before Partition, purchased the property in 1936 and holds a valid lease renewed up to the year 2081.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2025