Overview
- KCCI said on Saturday that the Cotton Exchange building in Karachi was abruptly sealed and forcefully occupied, rendering 209 commercial offices inactive overnight and stopping routine trading activity.
- The chamber and textile groups say the shutdown has caused direct financial losses, broken contracts and reputational harm for long‑standing firms that use the Exchange for broking, exporting and trading.
- The closure has disrupted the Exchange’s daily price-setting role and affected the KCA HVI laboratory used for internationally recognized cotton quality testing, which industry leaders warn could hurt export competitiveness.
- KCCI alleges the action disregards a Sindh High Court order dated June 18 that allowed the Karachi Cotton Association to continue operating the premises until final adjudication and has urged authorities to enforce the ruling.
- The Exchange has anchored Pakistan’s organized cotton market since the 1930s and linked growers, ginners, mills, exporters and roughly 300 brokers, so the current shutdown raises short-term trade bottlenecks and longer-term investor concern.