ISLAMABAD, Dec 12: The National Assembly’s standing committee on finance is going to reopen the issue of forensic report on last year’s stock exchange crash and discuss the delayed Anti-Money Laundering Bill, 2006, when it meets at the Parliament House here on Wednesday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan will brief the committee on sale/liquidation options for the Crescent Standard Investment Bank and the financial regularities committed there by the board of directors and other high-level officials.
The committee will also be briefed on the status of the over Rs22 billion tax refund scam in which some high-level officials of the Central Board of Revenue and a company are said to be involved.
In the last meeting, CBR chairman Abdullah Yousaf had refused to provide any further information to the committee on any progress in the case when a member asked him questions that were considered to be an attack on his family life not only by the chairman but also by a majority of members of the committee.
Mr Yousaf had informed that the case had been referred to the National Accountability Bureau and that the latter should be asked to update the committee. On Wednesday, the NAB is likely to brief the committee on the issue.
Insiders told Dawn that it would be yet another hard day for SECP chairman Razi-ur-Rehman when he would see the resurfacing of the March 2005 crash of the Karachi Stock Exchange, which he had wished to be buried under the bulky forensic report of US investigators the commission had recently made public.
Not only the NA body, but the senate’s standing committee on finance has also expressed reservations and dissatisfaction over the forensic report.
Both the standing committees of the senate and National Assembly have refused to buy the idea of the forensic report that no manipulation in the Badla financing or wash trade had caused last year’s market crash, which inflicted over $13 billion losses (official figures) on small investors.
The committees have questioned as to how there could be a fair investigation in the absence of any required data of the stock market transactions.
