KARACHI, May 2: A division bench of the Sindh High Court Friday stayed the operation of the show-cause notice issued by the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan to the Karachi Stock Exchange on the matter of allowing Islamabad Stock Exchange brokers to trade directly in the KSE.

The bench comprising Justices Qaiser Iqbal and Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi also issued a notice to respondents for May 30.

In March 2006, ISE had approached the Karachi and Lahore stock exchanges to set up National Market System in the country, envisaging payment of market access fee to the KSE. The KSE had rejected the proposal whereas the Islamabad and Lahore stock exchanges entered the “Unified Trade System” on August 26, 2006 which was approved by the SECP on April 9, 2007 and notified in the official gazette on June 6, 2007.—PPI