ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue Wednesday was informed that Securities and Exchange Commission (SECP) had issued 24 show cause notices to brokers involved in inside trading in Paksitan Stock Exchange (PSX).
The committee, headed by Senator Saleem H Mandviwalla, was also informed that the commission would issue further notices to 26 brokers involved in the illegal trading.
Chairman SECP Zafar Hajazi briefing the committee categorically denied the allegations leveled by the brokers about pressurizing them and said all action taken against them were quaci judicial.
He informed that abnormality was witnessed in the capital market during November last year as index was increased by 9,000 points in a single day and 3,000 points on the next day.
The SECP had started the study of the situation and investigation were initiated to identify the abnormality in the capital market to avoid any possibilities of illegal trading, he added.
He said investigation was carried out and 24 brokers were involved in illegal investment, adding the brokers had admitted their mistakes and tendered their apologies.
He also rejected the allegations that the SECP official had made phones calls to brokers and pressurized them, adding they were served show cause notices, which aimed at investigating the illegal financing.
The other objective of the investigation was also to review the available products for financing and remove the bottleneck if any to facilitate the investors, he added.
The SECP head said he was striving to make the security market a transparent market to avoid any crisis like situation that had happened in past and affected about 100,000 investors. He said due to strong fundamentals, despite selling behaviors of the foreign investors which tried to create destabilization, the market remained stabled. Zafar Hajazi said the SECP had restored the confidence of local investors by adopting the transparency and making the commission an independent organization.
He said the SECP as regulatory body was fulfilling the international set standards and it was focusing on development and regulation. Commissioner SECP Akif Ahmad informed about the overall performance of the commission and said a risk management cell was established to monitor the security market. He said currently the PSX was trading on 49,000 points and after the integration of three stock exchanges there were 303 brokers.
He said the SECP singed memorandum of understanding with 20 top universities and launched jamma punjji portal for the education of investors.
Meanwhile, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) informed that no additional indirect tax was charged on domestic and households electricity consumers. The committee also expressed it concern over the non-implementation of its recommendation on the repartition of an FBR official in Azad Kashmir and directed chairman FBR to submit report before the committee.
Regarding the import of auto parts in the shape of scrap from Japan and reassembling of the same into cars, Senator Mian Ateeq Shaikh was tasked to form proposals to safeguard the local industry. Senators, Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari, Ayesha Raza Farooq, Saud Majeed, Osaman Saifullah and Sardar Fateh Muhammad Muhammad Hassani attended the meeting.
