This refers to the above article by Khalil Ahmad, which was posted in the December 15 issue of your newspaper.
Whether the capital markets are victims of politics or not, but it is very apparent that these markets are certainly the victims of the manipulating vested interest, enjoying patronage, under the direction of the influential, firmly entrenched in the current ruling political leadership, federal financing management framework or the relative regulatory, administrative apparatus.
The fact of the matter is that the Ministry of Finance, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, (SECP), and the Board of Karachi Stock Exchange, have all lost the confidence and trust of the investors, at large. The government and the Finance Ministry have established new standards of mistrust for repeatedly breaking promises and assurances they had give to the investor community. This has been aptly highlighted in the above captioned article.
The parallel bourse was deliberately created to take the value of stocks to the cleaners. The engineered inordinate delay in lifting of the lower floor and the margin crises, will trigger a dominos' effect and a large number of brokerage houses will go bust.
This situation presents an enviable and extremely lucrative opportunity to the new entrants to take advantage, charge of the bourses, buy the Membership Card from the bankrupt and defaulting broker at throw-away prices and pick up stocks at 30-40 percent depreciated value. This is as simple as this. Period. This is a great game of poker, indeed!!