Interview with Mr. Zaki ur Rehman, Chief Business Officer at Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited (PMEX)
Profile:
Mr Zaki ur Rehman is the Chief Business Officer at Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited (PMEX). He brings over two decades of diversified professional experience across banking, financial services, business development, credit, and consumer & corporate banking.
Before joining PMEX, Zaki held key roles at leading local and international financial institutions, including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (UAE), Habib Bank AG Zurich (UAE), Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan, and Citibank Pakistan. His extensive banking experience has provided him with a strong understanding of financial markets, institutional business development, client relationship management, and strategic growth.
At PMEX, Zaki has played a pivotal role in expanding the Exchange’s business footprint and strengthening participation in Pakistan’s regulated futures market. Under his business leadership, PMEX has continued to broaden its engagement with federal and provincial governments, regulators, brokers, institutional participants, corporates, traders, agricultural stakeholders, and other market participants. He has been actively involved in initiatives aimed at increasing market participation, strengthening the broker ecosystem, developing new business opportunities, expanding awareness of regulated futures trading, and promoting greater accessibility to PMEX products. His contribution has also supported the Exchange’s efforts to diversify its product offering and develop new market segments across commodities, financial futures, and agricultural products.
Zaki has also been instrumental in driving strategic outreach and business development initiatives across Pakistan, helping PMEX establish stronger linkages with the corporate sector, financial institutions, chambers of commerce, agricultural communities, and prospective market participants. Through these initiatives, PMEX continues to strengthen its position as Pakistan’s regulated multi-commodity futures exchange and expand the role of futures markets in investment, trading, and risk management.
Pakistan & Gulf Economist had an exclusive conversation with Zaki Ur Rehman about agriculture sector of Pakistan. Following are the excerpts of the conversation:
Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited (PMEX) operates under the regulatory oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and provides access to both international and domestic commodity markets through standardized futures contracts. PMEX currently offers exposure to metals, energy, financial indices, currencies through its Composite Order Trading System (COTS), and agricultural commodities.
Agriculture is an important strategic area for PMEX because futures markets can contribute not only to trading activity but also to the development of Pakistan’s physical commodity markets.
Agricultural futures can serve several categories of participants, including farmers, traders, processors, manufacturers, agribusinesses, investors and brokers. For commercial participants, the value of an organized agricultural futures market extends beyond trading. It can contribute to transparent price discovery, price-risk management, structured settlement and a clearer connection between physical and financial commodity markets.
PMEX serves several types of market participants simultaneously:
Individual Traders and Investors gain access to multiple global and domestic markets through a regulated environment.
Commercial Businesses can use futures as tools for managing commodity-price exposure.
Farmers, Processors and Agribusinesses can participate in an organized marketplace for agricultural commodities.
PMEX Agriculture Futures Trading Initiative:
Agriculture is one of the most important sectors of Pakistan’s economy, supporting millions of farmers, traders, processors, millers, exporters and businesses across the country. Despite its importance, agricultural commodity markets have traditionally faced challenges such as fragmented price discovery, limited access to formal risk-management tools, dependence on informal trading channels and significant exposure to price volatility.
To address these challenges, Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited (PMEX) has been actively developing and promoting agricultural futures trading as part of its broader strategy to strengthen Pakistan’s commodity-market infrastructure.
The objective of the initiative is to provide agricultural stakeholders with access to a regulated, transparent and technology-driven marketplace where commodities can be traded through standardized futures contracts.
PMEX’s agricultural initiative is not only focused on increasing trading volumes. Its broader purpose is to improve market awareness, develop a structured trading ecosystem and encourage farmers, traders, millers, processors and other commercial participants to understand and use futures markets for price discovery and price-risk management.
Agricultural Commodities Available on PMEX:
PMEX is developing and expanding agricultural futures contracts covering commodities relevant to Pakistan’s domestic economy and international commodity markets.
These include products such as:
- Rice
- Wheat
- Maize
- Sugar
- Cotton
- Soybean
Certain agricultural contracts are designed around physical delivery, enabling the futures market to establish a direct connection with the underlying commodity.
This physical-market linkage is particularly important because it allows the futures market to serve not only financial traders but also participants directly involved in agricultural production and commerce.
Why Agricultural Futures are important?
Agricultural commodity prices can fluctuate significantly because of factors including weather conditions, crop production, international prices, supply and demand, government policies, transportation costs and changing market expectations. For farmers and businesses involved in agriculture, this price uncertainty can create significant commercial risk. A futures market can help address this challenge by allowing participants to establish a future price reference before an actual physical transaction takes place.
For example, a farmer expecting to harvest a crop in the coming months may be concerned that market prices could fall before the crop is ready for sale. A futures contract can potentially be used as part of a strategy to manage that price risk.
Similarly, a processor or commercial buyer concerned about rising commodity prices may use futures to manage future purchasing exposure.
In this way, agricultural futures can contribute to a more predictable and informed commercial environment.
Transparent Price Discovery:
One of the most important benefits of an organized futures market is price discovery.
In traditional agricultural markets, participants may receive different price information depending on location, intermediary relationships or local market conditions. A regulated futures exchange creates a centralized marketplace where buy and sell orders interact transparently.
The resulting market prices can provide farmers, traders, processors and other stakeholders with an additional reference point when making business decisions.
Greater availability of transparent price information can help market participants understand:
- Prevailing market expectations
- Future price trends
- Supply and demand conditions
- Potential price risks
- Appropriate timing for buying or selling commodities
Over time, improved price discovery can support better commercial planning throughout the agricultural value chain.
Connecting the Physical and Futures Markets:
A key feature of PMEX’s agricultural initiative is the development of a connection between the physical commodity market and the regulated futures market.
For deliverable futures contracts, clearly defined specifications establish requirements relating to areas such as commodity quality, quantity, delivery procedures and settlement.
This standardization can contribute to greater discipline and transparency in agricultural trade.
It can also support the development of an ecosystem involving:
- Farmers and growers
- Commodity traders
- Arhthis and intermediaries
- Millers
- Processors
- Exporters
- Warehouses
- Brokers
- Institutional participants
By bringing these different participants into an organized marketplace, PMEX aims to help modernize the way agricultural commodities are traded and priced in Pakistan.
Nationwide Awareness and Stakeholder Engagement:
A major component of PMEX’s agricultural futures initiative is market education and outreach.
PMEX has been conducting awareness sessions and roadshows across different agricultural regions of Pakistan in collaboration with industry stakeholders and development partners.
These activities are designed to directly engage the people who are part of the agricultural value chain.
Participants include:
- Farmers
- Commodity traders
- Millers
- Processors
- Arhthis
- Agricultural businesses
- Chambers of commerce
- Potential brokers
- Investors and other market stakeholders
The sessions explain how futures trading works, how agricultural contracts are structured and how regulated markets can potentially be used for price discovery and risk management.
PMEX has undertaken awareness activities in multiple cities and agricultural regions, helping introduce futures-market concepts to stakeholders who may previously have relied primarily on traditional physical-market mechanisms.
Collaboration with IFC and other industry stakeholders:
PMEX is also working with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and agricultural-market participants to increase awareness and understanding of agricultural futures trading in Pakistan.
These collaborations support capacity building, stakeholder education and the development of a broader ecosystem for commodity futures.
Through seminars, roadshows, presentations and direct stakeholder engagement, the initiative aims to explain futures trading in practical terms rather than presenting it only as a financial-market concept.
This is especially important in agricultural markets, where adoption depends on demonstrating how futures can relate directly to the commercial challenges faced by farmers, traders and processors.
Expanding Participation Beyond Major Cities:
One of the important aspects of PMEX’s agricultural initiative is its focus on taking awareness activities beyond Pakistan’s traditional financial centres.
Agricultural markets operate across cities, districts and production regions where the actual farming, processing and trading of commodities takes place. Accordingly, PMEX has been expanding its outreach into agricultural centres and commodity-producing regions. Such initiatives help the Exchange interact directly with stakeholders, understand market practices and identify the challenges that may need to be addressed before broader futures-market participation can develop.
This grassroots approach is critical because agricultural futures markets cannot grow solely through participation from financial investors. Sustainable market development requires involvement from the participants who produce, trade, process, store and consume the underlying commodities.