The Karachi Cotton Exchange building remains locked seven months after the Evacuee Trust Property Board sealed it, and a high court ruling ordering its reopening has yet to be enforced. The Karachi Cotton Association now warns that the standoff is crippling Pakistan's cotton trade and causing severe economic losses. Main Developments The Sindh High Court declared on June 18 that the Karachi Cotton Association shall retain possession of the property and continue its business activities without disturbance. Despite this verdict, the Evacuee Trust Property Board has refused to unseal the building. KCA Secretary-General Aftab Ahmed stated on Monday that the closure has halted all administrative operations and paralyzed the businesses of legal tenants, including cotton traders, ginners, spinners, and exporters. Documents and computers seized during the sealing remain inaccessible. Read also: Gilgit-Baltistan Unveils Rs20.48bn Interim Budget, Seeks Rs259bn from Centre Background The Karachi Cotton Association has operated the building since 1933, serving as a critical hub for Pakistan's cotton and textile value chain. Unlike ordinary trade bodies, the KCA performs regulatory functions including setting official daily spot rates for cotton, providing arbitration services, testing cotton samples for quality assurance, and offering technical training courses. The Evacuee Trust Property Board sealed the property on December 12, 2025, triggering a legal battle that culminated in the June 18 court order. The seven-month closure represents the first extended disruption in the exchange's near-century of operation. Why It Matters The shutdown has inflicted severe financial losses on the KCA and individual stakeholders, according to Ahmed, and caused significant damage to the national economy. Without the exchange's spot-rate mechanism and arbitration facilities, cotton buyers and sellers lack a formal price-discovery and dispute-resolution platform. Pakistan's textile industry, a major export earner, relies on the exchange for quality assurance and market regulation. Prolonged closure threatens to undermine confidence in the domestic cotton trade and could shift business to informal channels. What's Next The Karachi Cotton Association is expected to pursue enforcement of the Sindh High Court order through legal channels. The Evacuee Trust Property Board's reasons for refusing to comply with the verdict remain unclear, and no timeline for the building's reopening has been announced.