MULTAN, March 5: Local chapter of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association has decided to urge its central leadership to immediately convene a general body meeting in order to evolve a consensus about the proposed reopening of hedge trading in the cotton market.

A meeting of the PCGA Multan circle was held here on Friday with association's vice-chairman Mian Sajjad in the chair. The meeting deliberate upon the pros and cons of the reported KCA-sponsored move to reintroduce hedge buying of cotton in the country.

It was, however, decided in the meeting that opinion of the experts should also be sought before the general body meeting about the proposal in the light of previous experience of the cotton market with the hedge trading.

Sources at the PCGA told Dawn that the association's central executive committee had already called a general body meeting to be held at Rahim Yar Khan on March 13 to discuss the matter. When asked, former PCGA chairman Sheikh Muhammad Saeed said the Karachi Cotton Association members were wooing the ginners to get their consent to reopen the hedge trading.

He said, however, in his views the ginners should have to take a conscious stance on the matter because the hedge buying was unlikely to benefit them. He said, but the ginners were in a fix as to take which side as on the other hand some official corners were pushing to introduce the system of speculative buying through the Commodity Exchange Commission in the trade of various commodities, including cotton, wheat and gold.

Mr Saeed commented that personally he did not think that hedge was a fair mode of business. "It will be a roller coaster ride for the cotton market," he added.