September 06, 2006	Wednesday	Sha'aban 12, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: The National Assembly standing committee on finance and revenue here on Tuesday directed the finance ministry and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan to submit to it before October 7 the final report of forensic investigations launched with the help of a US team to detect the March 2005 crash of the Karachi stock market.

Chaired by ruling party MNA Anwar Ali Cheema, the standing committee expressed its concerns over inability of the finance ministry and the SECP to submit to it the interim report of the forensic investigations despite receiving directives in the last meeting in this regard.

The investigations are being conducted with the help of a US team and are aimed at uncovering the faces behind the last year's stock market crash that caused $13 billion losses in market capitalisation. The investigation itself will cost over $1 million.

The committee directed SECP Chairman Raziur Rehman and Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan to also submit an interim report along with the final report.

PPP MNA Syed Naveed Qamar, however, appreciated the action of the SECP to appoint a new administrator for Crescent Standard Investment Bank Ltd (CSIBL) where proper books of accounts were not maintained and in fact a parallel set of accounts were being managed with billions of rupees worth of assets not reflected in the official bank accounts.

In June last year, the SECP had detected that the bank's management had kept Rs5.353 billion worth of assets of the books.

The commission has also warned that if the bank does not come up with Rs2 billion to fill the gap between its liabilities and assets, the Rs1.6 billion deposits of individuals would remain at a greater risk. The individual depositors have already made a hue and cry over the emergence of the scam.

Some opposition members also lashed out at the government's "wrong" financial and economic policies, which they alleged encouraged corruption at every level and big scams also of which CSIBL was yet another example.

They alleged that in every financial scam individuals and groups who were in power or were part of the government were involved. They said the sponsor of CSIBL, Iltaf M. Saleem, was also chairman of the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority.