logo
Mills reluctant in making big deals on cotton market

Mills reluctant in making big deals on cotton market

LAHORE: The local cotton market on Monday remained steady and the trading volume remained satisfactory.
Cotton Analyst Naseem Usman told Business Recorder that the rate of new cotton in Sindh is in between Rs 15,900 to Rs 16,400 per maund and the rate of cotton in Punjab is in between Rs 16,700 to Rs 17,200 per maund. He also told that the rate of Phutti is increasing a little bit.
The rate of Phutti in Punjab is in between Rs 6,800 to Rs 7,200 per 40 kg and the rate of Phutti in Sindh is in between Rs 6,500 to Rs 7,100 per 40 kg. The rate of cotton in Balochistan is in between Rs 16,300 to Rs 16,400 per maund. The rate of Phutti in Balochistan is in between Rs 6,800 to Rs 7,200 per maund.
Approximately, 600 bales of Tando Adam were sold in between Rs 16,100 to Rs 16,200 per maund, 200 bales of Sanghar were sold were sold at Rs 16,150 per maund, 400 bales of Shahdad Pur were sold at Rs 16,300 per maund, 600 bales of Vehari, 400 bales of Chichawatni, 200 bales of Khanewal, 200 bales of Gojra, 200 bales of Dera Ghazi Khan and 200 bales of Mongi Bangla were sold at Rs 16,600 per maund.
The Spot Rate remained unchanged at Rs 16,300 per maund. Polyester Fiber was available at Rs 338 per kg.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

SECP introduces ‘Angel Fund' for startups in Pakistan
SECP introduces ‘Angel Fund' for startups in Pakistan

Business Recorder

time4 hours ago

  • Business Recorder

SECP introduces ‘Angel Fund' for startups in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has introduced 'Angel Fund' a new category of Venture Capital Fund which invests primarily in unlisted securities or financial assets of early-stage startup companies. The SECP has issued a notification here on Monday to amend the Private Fund Regulations, 2015. According to the SECP, the 'Angel Fund' means a sub-category of Venture Capital Fund established in a closed-end Structure which invests primarily in unlisted securities or financial assets of early-stage start-up companies other than Hedge Funds. The 'Eligible Investor' included an individual who has earned an income of at least Rs. 5 million in the preceding financial year or who has net assets of at least Rs. 15 million excluding the value of personal residence and who furnishes a declaration to the Private Fund Management Company that he understands the risks of investment in a Private Fund; a qualified Institutional buyer. Under the revised regulations, 'Financial Close' means the stage when all investment and financing arrangements have been made, funds have been received and the process for commencement of active investment out of Private Fund initiated in accordance with the investment policy as provided in the constitutive documents. The 'Fund of Funds' means a sub-category of a Private Fund established in a close-end structure or open-end structure which invests primarily in units of other Private Funds. The 'Hedge Fund' means a Private Fund established in either open-end or closed-end structure which employs diverse trading strategies and primarily invests and trades in Portfolio Securities and other financial Assets and 'Impact Fund' means a sub-category of a Private Fund established in a closed-end structure which invests primarily in Unlisted Securities or financial assets other than derivatives of socially responsible companies focusing on environmental, social and governance issues. The 'Infrastructure Fund' means a sub-category of Private Fund established in a closed-end structure which invests primarily in Unlisted Securities or financial assets other than derivatives of companies engaged in or formed for the purpose of operating, developing or holding infrastructure projects including transportation, utilities, and energy etc, SECP added. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

Pakistan has a mounting garbage problem
Pakistan has a mounting garbage problem

Business Recorder

time6 hours ago

  • Business Recorder

Pakistan has a mounting garbage problem

Pakistan generates 49.6 million tonnes of solid waste annually yet the federal government has allocated no money for the purpose of waste management in its 2025-2026 budget. This glaring disconnect between policy rhetoric and financial reality explains the fundamental failure of Pakistan's legal framework to address what experts speaking to Business Recorder call a mounting garbage problem. In a country where cities are littered with garbage, while recyclable material worth millions goes to waste, outdated waste management laws represent a missed opportunity that could transform urban landscapes from dumping grounds to resource hubs. Dr Tanveer Ahmed Gadhi - who is an assistant professor at the US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Water at Mehran University of Engineering & Technology Jamshoro - said Pakistan's waste management system struggles with an inefficient coordination mechanism, leading to significant environmental and economic losses. Major cities like Karachi and Lahore generate over 20,000 tons of solid waste annually, out of which only 40% are sent to engineered landfills. A lost opportunity There is a lost opportunity to generate energy from manure, and livestock, agricultural industrial and municipal waste to meet the coountry's 60% primary energy demand, he said. Meanwhile, plastic recycling rate remains below 10% and the recycling sector remains severely underdeveloped, with only 3% of plastic waste currently recycled in Pakistan, even though the country generates 2 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. This inefficiency directly costs an estimated loss of $1.2 billion annually to the economy. He said the situation demands a centralized monitoring system, public-private partnerships, and 'Extended Producer Responsibility' - a policy approach that holds producers financially and physically responsible for their products and packaging at the end of their useful life, including collection, sorting, recycling, and safe disposal. Meanwhile, researcher and undergraduate student of the same centre, Syed Samiya Shah, said the country's waste ends up contaminating open fields, waterways, and roadsides. Cities like Lahore could significantly benefit from recycling, with current recycling operations already generating Rs271 million revenue from 21.2% of solid waste collected from the city, whereas the estimated worth is approximately Rs530 million if the city was given a higher industrial status. The environmental cost is equally severe, with formally registered institutions managing only 50% of Pakistan's municipal waste, leaving the remainder to informal entrepreneurs who lack proper infrastructure and environmental safeguards. What does the law say? The country's waste management legal architecture appears comprehensive on paper. The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (PEPA) 1997 established a regulatory framework while the National Environmental Policy 2005 provides overarching guidelines for addressing environmental issues, including waste management. Although the country has adequate legislation, it unfortunately does not have a national institution for proper waste management. The 18th Amendment has also complicated matters by making waste management a provincial subject while creating coordination challenges between federal and provincial regulations. The 2024-2025 federal budget has revealed a lack of serious commitment to waste management. While Sindh allocated Rs28.4 billion for waste management in the budget, a 58% increase from the previous year's Rs18 billion allocation, the federal government provided no dedicated waste management allocation. Punjab allocated Rs5 billion for two modern landfill sites - Rs4.5 billion for one in Faisalabad and Rs500 million for one in Gujranwala. However, an absence of a central monitoring and coordinating authority has created a vacuum; each province operates in isolation with different standards and with no unified enforcement mechanism. Moreover, provincial allocations reveal a critical flaw in post-18th Amendment decentralization: Selective urban prioritization. Sindh and Punjab's billions of budgets for solid waste management primarily target major metropolitan areas, such as Karachi, Lahore, and Faisalabad, while smaller cities and towns remain neglected. This defeats the core principle of decentralization, which was meant to ensure equitable service delivery across all urban and rural areas. The result is a two-tier system where major cities receive provincial attention while smaller municipalities struggle. Meanwhile, PEPA and the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination (MoCC) lack proper coordination mechanisms to ensure equitable implementation across all municipal tiers. A centralized solution Shah and Dr Gadhi believe that Pakistan needs a centralized monitoring and guidelines system that ensures provincial policies translate effectively to smaller cities and towns. This federal oversight would guide provincial policies towards comprehensive coverage that includes secondary cities, tehsils, and rural areas that currently fall through the cracks of provincial planning, while enforcing existing circular economy regulations that remain unimplemented despite the policy framework. The two experts recommend that regulations should require manufacturers to manage their products' entire lifecycle, shifting responsibility from municipalities to producers. To reduce dependency on expensive foreign contractors while building local capacity, the government should leverage the informal recycling sector, which already handles significant waste volumes, by formalizing and supporting these operations, they said. Legal reforms alone won't suffice without corresponding financial mechanisms. Pakistan needs a dedicated waste management cess on generators, green bonds for financing waste infrastructure, and inclusion of the waste sector in the new carbon levy system introduced in the 2025-2026 budget. Pakistan's waste crisis reflects weak institutions, poor coordination between federal and provincial governments, inadequate financing, and a lack of long-term planning. International examples demonstrate that successful waste management requires coordinated national strategies with federal oversight, standardized regulations and financial commitment, all of which is currently missing from Pakistan's approach.

Fragmented climate funding in KP: a costly gamble
Fragmented climate funding in KP: a costly gamble

Business Recorder

time13 hours ago

  • Business Recorder

Fragmented climate funding in KP: a costly gamble

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has now endured two climate catastrophes in just three years, and the scale is staggering. In August 2025 alone, flash floods claimed 327 lives, including 158 deaths in Buner in a single week, while more than 1,600 buildings were damaged, 428 livestock lost, and entire tourist families swept away in Swat. These tragedies echo the devastation of 2022, when over 600,000 people were displaced, 7,700 cattle killed, and 326,000 homes destroyed; it is a vivid proof that this cycle is no longer an anomaly but a deepening pattern of climate vulnerability. Pakistan has faced this magnitude before. In 2010, record monsoon rains submerged one-fifth of the country, directly affecting 20 million people, killing nearly 2,000, and inflicting over USD 40 billion in damages to infrastructure, agriculture, and industry. Yet, despite these mounting disasters, KP's climate finance remains fragmented. The province has earmarked billions: Rs 41.1 billion for mitigation and Rs 93.7 billion for adaptation in its 2023-24 budget. On paper, these are impressive figures. In practice, however, this funding risks becoming a costly gamble: poorly tracked, scattered across departments, and dangerously out of sync with escalating risks. The costs of inaction are already visible. Climate shocks are overwhelming local capacity, from catastrophic floods to urban health crises like rising dengue cases in Peshawar, driven by hotter temperatures, erratic rainfall, and higher humidity. In other words, volatility is not just destroying infrastructure, it is driving up health costs and straining already stretched public services. The question is not whether KP is spending money, but whether it is spending it wisely. While mitigation funds are spread across sectors such as forestry, transport, and waste management, there is no central 'climate budget.' This invisibility makes it nearly impossible to track where money goes or how effective it is. Projects that clearly contribute to resilience, say in irrigation or health, are not labelled as climate-related, meaning they cannot be reported domestically or to international funders. This is more than an accounting issue. Pakistan's own National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP) stress the need for traceable and transparent financing. By ignoring this, KP not only weakens accountability but also cuts itself off from potential external support. At the national level, reforms are moving in the opposite direction. With support from the IMF, Pakistan has rolled out Climate Budget Tagging (CBT), which integrates climate classification into the federal budget process. A new form, III-C, now tracks climate-related subsidies and programs across ministries. The results are telling. The federal government allocated Rs. 603 billion for mitigation in 2025-26, up 183 percent from the previous year, and Rs 85.4 billion for adaptation, up 83 percent. These are not just inflated figures: they are tagged, traceable, and reportable to international partners like the Green Climate Fund (GCF). This transparency has already improved Pakistan's credibility with global climate finance institutions. In contrast, KP has no such system. Without tagging or a climate-aware financial management framework, even well-intentioned projects risk disappearing into a policy blind spot. The province cannot demonstrate alignment with national priorities, nor can it credibly pitch to global funds. This blind spot is particularly dangerous in a province as climate vulnerable as KP. Floods, forest degradation, and health emergencies are escalating. Without transparent budgeting, every rupee spent on risks becoming a missed opportunity, one that could otherwise attract external finance, build resilience, and reduce losses. For KP, the path forward is clear. The province must adopt climate budget tagging across departments, taking lessons from the federal government's recent reforms, so that climate-related expenditures are visible and traceable. Allocations should be aligned with national frameworks such as the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and National Climate Change Policy (NCCP), ensuring consistency and coherence with Pakistan's broader climate strategy. Equally important is the disclosure and centralization of climate spending to strengthen accountability and enable external financing opportunities. Departments need to be integrated so that climate action is not scattered across silos but coordinated toward shared outcomes. Climate change is not waiting, and KP cannot afford to either. In a province where over 300 lives were lost in a single season of floods and dengue cases continue to rise, fragmented financing is no longer a bureaucratic flaw. It is a gamble with people's lives. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store