I WORK for a public listed multinational company in Pakistan. I wish to share my personal opinion regarding the requirement of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) for companies to display an exhaustive list on its websites of documents pertaining to investors. While it is commendable that the SECP is going the extra mile to safeguard the rights of investors and facilitate their access to information, the commission also seems to be taking liberties with companies’ websites.

Why does the SECP need to coerce companies into displaying certain information (case in point being ‘Jamapunji’ and ‘Service desk’ logos) on the homepage when these could easily be put on the SECP’s own website, or within the investors section on a company site, or advertised through the newspapers.

Let companies exercise autonomy regarding the aesthetics and contents of their website. There are more subtle ways of ensuring compliance; a well-intentioned initiative is being done the wrong way.

A. Salahuddin

Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2018