ISLAMABAD :The newly constituted board of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) held its first meeting Thursday.

Twenty names were forwarded to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) for seven seats of independent directors, including one female director. The list also included the names of four existing independent directors.

The newly-elected shareholder directors including Zhiping Rong, Que Bo, Yu Huali and Shahnawaz Mahmood belong to the Pak-China Investment Company Limited (PCICL) – the strategic investor.

Mr Mahmood has replaced Mr Li Peng who resigned from the post of Managing Director PCICL.

The local shareholder directors are Ashraf Bhawani, Ahmed Chinoy and Abid Ali Habib.

The twenty names forwarded to the SECP include Masud Naqvi, Hussain Lawai, Zafar Sobhani, Shabbar Zaidi, Zubair Palwala, Najeeb Ghori, Maliha Bangash, Yun (Chinese national), Usman Asghar, Amjad Pervez, Razi ur Rahman, Qadir Memon, Ali Naqvi, Ali Sultan, Suleman Mehdi and Naz Khan.

Existing independent directors – Shehzad Chamdia, Shehzad Dada, Munir Kamal and Moin Fudda – were part of the process to complete the quorum of Board meeting. Their names for independent directors were also forwarded to the commission.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the SECP said that the final decision will be taken by the Ministry of Finance in consultations with the commission.

Incidentally, the Pakistan Stockbrokers Association had earlier expressed concerns that nomination of existing independent directors would be a conflict of interest as they were forwarding their own names.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2018