PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s decision to form a committee to look into the allegations of misuse of powers by top officials of the country’s major regulatory bodies should help bring transparency to the boardrooms of these entities. Calls for the scrutiny of such powers were triggered last month when a Senate panel raised questions over the SECP chairman’s extraordinary salary and allowances reportedly amounting to Rs381m in addition to other perks. Later, it transpired that the legal framework governing the other regulatory bodies, including the State Bank and Nepra, also empower their management and boards to arbitrarily enhance their salaries and other emoluments without government or parliamentary oversight. The committee will now scrutinise the legality and propriety of such self-serving decisions, and recommend steps to strengthen oversight.

Many argue that competitive, market-based pay and perks are essential to attract and retain competent professionals and allow regulatory institutions to function better. There is no denying this fact. However, the argument loses force when these decisions are made by the very people who stand to directly benefit from them in an opaque manner. Consistent regulatory lapses and failure of these regulators to protect the public interest and ensure transparency and accountability in the sectors they are tasked to regulate further weaken this argument. Given the poor performance of most regulators, some might want the government to alter the legal frameworks that allow their top managers to fix their own compensation. That would be a mistake. Rather, the committee should revisit the governing laws of all regulators and suggest ways to ensure that the enhancement of salaries and other perks of top officials are linked to the performance of the regulators and strict parliamentary scrutiny to uphold accountability. Also, it should suggest ways to make their decision-making processes transparent to restore public trust in these bodies.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2025