SECP Chairman Zafar Hijazi. PHOTO: FILE
On July 24, the federal government suspended Hijazi and appointed Zafar Abdullah as acting chairman of the SECP. Hijazi has been indicted in an official record tampering case.
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 senior most commissioner of the commission to be the acting chairman of the commission until appointment of the chairman on a regular basis.”
The section also requires that the government shall ensure appointment of the chairman on a regular basis within 120 days from the date the post of chairman fell vacant.
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The 120-day limit is going to expire on coming Friday.
“The 120-day limit is applicable only when the post of chairman is vacant,” said the Ministry of Finance while responding to a question.
The ministry added it sought legal opinion from the Ministry of Law and Justice on the issue.
“According to the law ministry, the suspension does not automatically make the post vacant and technically the post of the chairman is not vacant,” said the ministry, emphasising that it had fulfilled the requirement of Section 6A by appointing an acting chairman.
The government had suspended Hijazi after he was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on charges of tampering with the official record.
A court in Islamabad has already ordered the initiation of a trial against Hijazi in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills’ record-tampering case. He was formally indicted by a special court.
FIA’s charge sheet said the accused was involved in tampering with the Chaudhry Sugar Mills’ record. Hijazi pleaded not guilty.
Hijazi had been appointed chairman of the SECP on December 16, 2014 by the federal government along with two other commissioners, Akif Saeed and Fida Hussain Samoo. Hijazi’s term along with the two commissioners will expire on December 16 this year.
If one believes in the law ministry’s legal opinion, the 120-day mandatory limit will start from December 16, which means the federal government can run the SECP’s affairs on an ad hoc basis till April next year. The expiry of the terms of three commissioners will create another problem for the finance ministry as it will have to meet the requirement of having at least three commissioners to keep running the SECP. At present, the SECP has five commissioners including Hijazi.
The ministry said Saeed’s term could be extended while the other two commissioners may not qualify for another term due to the age limit.
The federal cabinet recently extended the number of SECP commissioners from five to seven. The ministry has shortlisted six candidates for the two additional posts, but their interviews have not been conducted due to the absence of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
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Dar is facing a corruption reference in an accountability court and left the country three weeks ago.
Among the shortlisted candidates are Iftikhar Ahmed, Shahid Naseem, Hafiz Mohammad Yousaf, Amir Ali Khan, Naveed Qazi and Razi Khan. Yousaf is said to be very close to Dar and Hijazi and is tipped to be the hot favourite.
The SECP regulates the country’s corporate sector (excluding banks) and capital markets. Past few months have been marred by events that have hit the stock market as the benchmark KSE 100-share Index has lost value significantly.
The market has remained on the wane mainly owing to political uncertainty, potential currency depreciation and public perception about economic performance of the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2017.
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