August 19, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 20, 1424

LAHORE, Aug 18: The Lahore High Court on Monday ordered the placement of the names of six private limited foreign exchange companies’ directors on the Exit Control List and the freezing of their respective accounts for having carried out illegal business in Pakistan.

While taking up a petition of Securities and Exchange Commission (SECP) filed against the directors of the six companies — Bulls and Bears, World Business Consultants, United Brokerage Consultants, Forex International Securities, Trade Station Securities, Rauf International — Justice Nasim Sikander further ordered that the properties of the directors be confiscated.

It had been alleged by the SECP that these companies had been carrying out the foreign exchange business without obtaining the prior approval of both the SECP and the State Bank of Pakistan. The directors had not obtained the licence from the SECP for carrying out the business. Under the prevalent provisions, no company indulged in foreign exchange business could charge its clients more than 20 per cent of its paid-up capital but in the present case, the directors had exceeded this limit.

Those whose names were ordered to be placed on the ECL included: Shahid Hussain Awan, Dr. Hassan and Majid Rashid (Bulls and Bears), Muhammad Saleem Khan, Chaudhry Farooq Azam, Kashif Iqbal and Amjad Ehsan (World Business Consultants), Asad Kamran, Adnan Qayyum, Shahid Iqbal, Usman Farooq, Ajmal Latif and Majid Saleem (United Brokerage Consultants), Shoaibuddin, Zeeshan Ali and Shoaib Ahmad (Forex International Securities), Khurram Shehzad and Shumaila Ali (Trade Station Securities), Haroon Ahmad and Shaheena (Rauf International).