ISLAMABAD: Senators on Thursday thrashed Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) officials over failing to control insider trading and information leakage that could lead to market manipulations.
Giving presentation on the Securities Bill 2015 to the members of Senate Standing Committee on Finance, chaired by Nasreen Jalil, SECP Chairman Zafar Hijazi said there were major shortcomings in the existing Securities and Exchange Ordinance 1969 that needed to be replaced with Securities Bill 2015.
He informed the committee that there were no provisions in the ordinance for duties of securities exchange, system audit of stock exchanges, powers of intervention of the commission for investor protection and regulation of clearing houses.
There were inadequate provisions dealing with the eligibility criteria for registration of stock exchanges, accounts and annual reports, investigations, inspections, recovery and prosecution, the committee was informed.
However, chairperson of the committee Senator Nasreen Jalil, said that the SECP needed to come with details of changes made in the new law as against the existing law.
Meanwhile, the statement by SECP chief that he has requested Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for making the commission fully autonomous, landed him with a barrage of queries from the senators.
Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015
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