KARACHI, Nov 11: It was indeed the disinvestment process of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) that was at the heart of discussion at a press conference held in Islamabad on Thursday. But many players at the Karachi stock market were aware of that a day earlier.

The investor with the 'insider' information may have made early purchases, which pushed the price of PTCL stock up by Re1, placing it among one of the top five gainers for the day on Wednesday. The share in telecom closed at Rs38.80, before touching the highest at Rs39.25. Trading was noted in 34m shares. The KSE-100 index gained 49 points on Wednesday with PTCL's contribution in the index being 18 points.

It would be churlish to speculate who may have passed on the 'insider' information to the interested stock players, for the list of people who would have put reminders in their diaries for those meetings would be endless.

President Pervez Musharraf was there to chair the earlier cabinet meeting held on Monday that made the decision, announced by Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh at the press conference on Thursday. Others who attended the meeting on Monday included the prime minister, ministers concerned, the PTA chairman, PTCL officials, and may be in the back row, some members of the press, secretaries, waiters and attendants. If it is understandably quite impossible to plug the 'insider' information, why not make what clearly looks like 'material information' public a day or two earlier? That would provide all investors with a level-playing field.