KARACHI: The Pakistan Stockbrokers Association have approached Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) chairperson Dr Shamshad Akhtar to initiate an inquiry into the premature rollout of the new trading system on October 25, 2021 for a week, as investors suffered losses during the period.

The association in a letter to Dr Shamshad Akhter accused the PSX management of taking “conscious actions” that set up the Chinese system to fail, as its rollout was without a compatible front-end trading terminal.

The association specifically asked the PSX chairperson not to include PSX Director You Hang to the inquiry commission. He was the deputy managing director when the PSX procured the system from Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE). Hang is also the authorised representative of the three Chinese shareholders, including SZSE that sold the trading system, on the PSX board.

The stockbrokers asked the PSX chairperson to ascertain whether the management issued any tender for the faulty front-end trading terminal developed locally by the Catalyst IT Solutions. They also asked for a check if the management obtained the approval from the board of directors and whether a stress test was conducted before “go-live”.

The letter said the managing director took the go-live decision unilaterally, despite a categorical note of dissent by 57 stockbrokers who constituted more than 40 per cent of the registered Karachi members.

“You’ll acknowledge that [the] entire PSX management was reluctant to shift to the old system (after the botched rollout of the new one) and made a false excuse that at least 48 hours will be required to migrate from JTT (front-end terminal) to KATS,” it said, noting that the exchange eventually gave itself less than 13 hours to do the same.