KARACHI: Minister for Finance Mohammad Ishaq Dar formally inaugurated the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) which has been formed by merging Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) and Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) into one stock exchange.
Addressing the ceremony, Ishaq Dar termed the day as a historic one saying that it took 15 years to make dreams true. He said the formation of single national stock exchange would send a positive message abroad and would attract more foreign investors in the country’s capital market. He said the government was determined to facilitate the law making process in the capital market and most of the work has been done successfully while work on few bills including Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SEP) Bill, 2015, Competition Restructuring Bill 2015 was in process and they would also be passed soon.
He hoped that the management of newly formed PSX would focus on good transaction, governance and transparency and it would help to further improve the country’s capital market performance.
He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), during its first two and half years of government, had taken numerous reform initiatives in the country’s dwindling economy which had now become stable one.
He vowed that in future too, the government would take bold initiative for the economic development of the country. He asked the political parties not to indulge their politics in the projects of national importance. “All the political parties should get together and work jointly for resolving challenges faced by the country for its betterment”, Dar added.
He said under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the government managed to take the country’s economy out of crisis as was endorsed by 22 international economic institutions who had termed the Pakistan’s economy as stable.
He said now due to rapidly improving economy, foreign investors were taking keen interest to invest in Pakistan. “The $46 billion mega project of China-Pakistan Economic
He said the government was endeavoring to resolve energy crisis and to end the load shedding by end 2017 or by the start of 2018 as 10,000 MW more electricity would be added to the national grid by that time.
Meanwhile addressing the ceremony, Munir Kamal, Chairman PSX said the formation of PSX was a watershed event for the country’s capital market.
He said due to rapidly improving economic situation of the country, not only local investors but the foreign investors were also taking keen interest in the Pakistan’s capital market.
He said the Pakistan’s corporate governance performance was close to the world standard and after the formation of one national stock exchange the performance would get more better in future. He said there were some flaws in the taxation system. “We would like to present some proposals during the next budget and if the government accepts those proposals, the taxation system would become more improved.”
Mukhtar Hussain Jaffri, Chairman ISE Board said the decision of amalgamation of three stock exchanges was made after mutual consultation and agreement and the concerns of stakeholders were addressed.
