In a move that could sabotage talks between authorities and gold traders, speculators have reopened gold rates that had been frozen for over a week,

The revelation was made by Haji Haroon Chand, President All Pakistan Gems and Jewellers Association, in an audio message posted on social media where he said that speculators had decided to resume trade in total violation of the government position.

As the government announced a crackdown on smuggling and currency manipulation to improve the state of the economy, the association sat down with the government to decide and official rate for gold.

The two sides agreed to fix the per tola rate of the precious metal at Rs215,000 on September 12. The association said that the rates would not be opened until talks with the government had concluded.

However, Chand said that speculators were trying to ‘sabotage’ the process, which he described as successful, by opening rates at will. The rate is Rs 222,000 per tola in Lahore, Rs 230,000 in Peshawar and Rs 217,000 in Karachi.

He asked which ‘mafia’ was oepning rates based on speculation even thought the trade had been suspended by agreement of both the association and the government. He also threatened that the speculators would be ‘exposed’ openly if hey did not stop their illegal trade.

Chand has also told traders to trade in Rupee instead of dollars and pounds.

Gold rates had seen plenty of rise and fall in recent months, even behaving contrary to international prices at some points.

The government’s crackdown has yielded some results, especially in terms of the dollar which has fallen back to below Rs300 in both the interbank and open market.