ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: The Supreme Court allowed the Competition Commission of Pakistan on Thursday to proceed in a case in which the stock exchanges of Lahore and Islamabad have challenged the alleged monopoly of the Karachi Stock Exchange.

The court vacated a stay order issued by the Sindh High Court on June 5 on a KSE writ petition challenging action on a show-cause notice issued to it by the commission.

The court allowed the commission to proceed against the KSE and issue a final order.

The LSE, with about 400 listed companies, and the ISE with about 200 have interlinked their trading to enable members of one exchange to trade freely on the other.

The two bourses had asked the KSE, which has about 562 listed companies, to provide the same facility to their members on a reciprocal basis. But the KSE refused to join in the linkage and said that LSE and ISE members could use its trading facility by becoming its members.

The ISE and LSE lodged a complaint with the CCP under Section 3 of the Pakistan Competition Commission Ordinance, 2007 and alleged that the

KSE was abusing its dominant position.

An official announcement issued by the CCP stated that it had issued a show-cause notice to the KSE for prima facie abuse of its dominant position by not providing access to the “best price” of commonly listed securities to a investor at the ISE and LSE and, thereby, preventing, restricting and reducing competition in the market.

The KSE was represented by Advocate Khalid Anwar and the CCP by former attorney general Malik Qayyum.