KARACHI, Dec 5: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has been accused of complicating the method for incorporation of companies instead of providing a fast and quick service through the use of Information Technology (IT).

According to corporate consultants prior to introduction of e-service in August this year, the SECP used to take three to four days to issue certificates of incorporation and allotting names to new companies.

However, with the introduction of the e-service the time for obtaining the certificate of incorporation has increased and it has put corporate consultants in an odd position as they cannot discuss the observations made by the central office of the SECP in Islamabad.

Farooq Khan, a corporate consultant, told Dawn that after the conversion of the Corporate Law Authority into the SECP the working of Companies Registration Office (CROs) had improved considerably.

He observes that with the start of e-service, it seems that ultimately all the matters will be handled by the SECP in Islamabad and its CROs in different cities will be going to act as post offices only.

Another corporate consultant Asim Rizwani said that even in the case of conversion of the status of a company the corporate sector was facing a lot of problems and had to wait for a long period to get proper answer from Islamabad.

Unfortunately, even after obtaining the certificate of conversion the website of the SECP continues to show previous status of a company, Mr Rizwani said, adding that in one case the certificate of conversion was obtained in September but till today the SECP site is showing the said company as a private entity.

Farooq Khan said that in case of change of name of a company the consultants were facing problems because after scanning of documents the case was reviewed by the SECP, Islamabad, and this consumes a lot of time and there was a gap of communication as well.

He said that the document (circular 24 of 2008), on the basis of which an applicant had to e-file incorporation, was not available on the SECP’s website and the hard copy of the document had been obtained informally.

He said for smooth and proper functioning of the e-services, the software programme introduced by the National Institute of Facilitation Technologies (NIFT), the SECP should at least take all stakeholders on board.