ISLAMABAD, April 14: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance has reignited debate over the decision of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) of clearing brokers from the charges of their involvement in the March 2005 stock market crash.

The committee on Saturday directed former SECP chairman Dr Tariq Hassan and head of the Task Force on the stock market crash Justice Saleem Akhtar to appear before it on April 24 and counter the arguments of incumbent SECP chairman Raziur Rehman.

Mr Rehman was unable to satisfy the members of the committee when he said that the SECP had followed a proper quasi judicial procedure to investigate and decide about the stock market crash.

He said that the commission had found that the notices it had served on the brokers had received proper answers and that brokers could not be held responsible.

Some members also questioned the composition of the Diligence, the US firm that had conducted forensic probe into the market crash that cost $1m to the national exchequer.

“Diligence could not conduct forensic probe. It is a chartered accountant (firm),” observed member Kashmala Tariq. She exchanged a heated debate with the chairman of the committee Anwar Ali Cheema, after finding that Dr Tariq Hassan and Justice Saleem Akhtar had not been invited for the meeting.

At one point, member Naveed Qamar also threatened a walk out of the meeting after complaining that the SECP chairman was not answering the questions he had asked from him and was rather feeding the members with his own view point repeatedly.

Some members said that the composition of the Diligence had been changed soon after Dr Tariq Hassan was shown the door. The team leader was not a security market expert. He had no knowledge or experience of securities market and his only claim to fame was that he had carried out the audit of food-for-oil scandal for the UN in Iraq.

They said there was no Pakistani auditor to guide or assist the forensic team about local practices including badla financing, which consumed most of the time of the US investigators in trying to understand the concept.