MULTAN, March 21: The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association has opposed the idea of reopening of hedge trading in the cotton market, declaring it a recipe to disaster.

A general body meeting of the association was held here with its chairman Seth Jaith Anand in the chair. Ginners from all corners of the cotton growing districts of the country attended the meeting called to deliberate upon the KCA-sponsored move to fashion again the speculative future trading in cotton market.

It was observed that the hedge trading would put the whole business of cotton in the hands of few tycoons who could manipulate the circumstances at their whim. "Hedge will always maintain an element of uncertainty in the business," a leading ginner from Punjab commented in the meeting.

Some of them observed that there was a hell of difference between cotton markets of America and Pakistan as here it had just started rolling on the free market mechanism with prices started matching the international parity for the last only two years. They said that there was no guarantee that all the stocks booked for future trading would be lifted completely by the speculators.

Some of the PCGA general body members also pointed out that gambling had been prohibited in Islam and if the government pushed the hedge trading to be accepted in the cotton market then the ginners' association would move the Federal Shariat Court against it.

The meeting unanimously approved a resolution against the hedge trading and vowed to oppose it at all the official and non-official forums.

Accepting the general body resolution, the PCGA chairman urged the ginners not to seal fate of the matter only in one sitting and instead keep on discussing it to comprehend all the pros and cons of the proposed hedge trading in the business.

DAWN