CREATIVE COMMONS
The Ministry of Finance has sent a summary for his appointment as acting chairman to the Ministry of Law and Justice for advice, said an official of the finance ministry.
However, Abdullah is junior to Tahir Mahmood, who is the senior most commissioner. Recent record submitted in the Supreme Court by the SECP also confirms that Abdullah is not the senior most commissioner.
Section 6A of the SECP Act 1997 states: “At any time when position of the chairman is vacant or the chairman is unable to perform his functions due to any cause, the federal government shall appoint the senior most commissioner of the Commission to be the acting chairman of the commission until appointment of the chairman on regular basis.”
The seat of the SECP chairman has fallen vacant after the arrest of Zafar Hijazi by the Federal Investigation Agency on allegations of tampering the record of Chaudhry Sugar Mills, owned by the family of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The district court on Saturday gave a four-day physical remand of Hijazi to the FIA. He was, however, shifted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) after his appearance before the court.
The joint investigation team (JIT) - which had probed Sharif family’s offshore assets in line with the apex court’s April 20 verdict in the Panama Papers case - alleged that the SECP chairman had tampered with the record of Sharif’s sugar mills.
Sources said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was not willing to appoint Tahir Mahmood as acting chairman of the SECP. Mahmood, along with other officers of the SECP, has recorded a statement against Hijazi, alleging that the SECP chairman forced them to tamper with the record.
An official of the Ministry of Finance claimed that since Mahmood was serving a third term as commissioner and he was reappointed recently, he had become junior to other commissioners.
However, Hijazi had recently told the Supreme Court that Mahmood was the senior most commissioner of the SECP.
“The issue pertaining to Chaudhry Sugar Mills has been dealt with by the enforcement department of the Company Law Division of the Commission, which at the relevant time was being supervised by the senior most commissioner, Tahir Mahmood,” according to the SECP chairman’s reply to the apex court.
The SECP had submitted this reply in the apex court through the Additional Attorney General of Pakistan after JIT alleged that the SECP was not cooperating.
The spokesman of the finance ministry did not respond to the question whether the second senior most commissioner was being appointed as the acting chairman.
Mahmood became the SECP commissioner in September 2010 and is the most senior commissioner, showed the SECP record. On the other hand, Abdullah had been appointed as commissioner in August 2012, followed by Akif Saeed and Fida Hussain who both were appointed in December 2014.
If the government notifies Abdullah as SECP’s acting chairman, it will be violating the SECP Act for the second time in the past two and a half years. In December 2014, the finance ministry appointed Hijazi as SECP commissioner for three years for the third time. Hijazi is considered a close confidante of the finance minister.
Under the original 1997 law, the government can appoint a person as commissioner only for two terms. However, subsequently in August 2016, the government got the SECP Act amended to create room for third time appointment of a person as commissioner.
But this amendment would not apply to Hijazi who had been appointed before this amendment was introduced in the Act. The Auditor General of Pakistan had also pointed out that Hijazi’s appointment was against the SECP Act of 1997.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 23rd, 2017.
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