Draft corporate governance regulations: ICMAP hosts stakeholders' conference in Islamabad

A Stakeholders Conference on SECP Draft Listed Companies (Code of Corporate Governance) Regulations, 2017 was organized at Islamabad by Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMA Pakistan) which dilated upon the pros and cons of the draft legislation and concluded that this need to be redrafted as, in its present form, this draft does not safeguard the interests of all stakeholders, including the professional accountants.
The conference was largely participated by accountants, audit practitioners, CAs, CMAs, representatives of business and industry and academia. ICMA Pakistan had earlier organized two similar stakeholders' conferences at Karachi and Lahore. The views elicited from the participants of these conferences would be consolidated by ICMA Pakistan for presenting to the SECP to incorporate in the final version of the legislation. ICMA Pakistan has also requested the SECP to provide a suitable time to ICMA delegation to present the recommendation and hold an exclusive session with them on the draft listed companies' corporate governance regulations.
Mian Shaukat Masud, Vice President, FPCCI appreciated ICMA Pakistan for taking the initiative to organize the conference on matter of significance for the corporate sector and society. He emphasized on the importance of corporate governance in today's progressive and aggressive business environment. He urged that the draft must be revised so as to promote fairness, transparency and accountability. He was of the view that every new regulation add up to the cost of compliance and hence there must be bare minimum number of legislations
Muhammad Rafi, Former, President ICMA Pakistan & SAFA also appreciated the Institute to host this interactive session and SECP for significant improvement in the existing regulations. He emphasized upon the need for consultation with stakeholders before finalizing the regulations so that it could serve the interest of all of them. He suggested for adding provision related to procurement Committees and Disaster Recovery Mechanism in the draft legislation for value addition. He called for effective implementation of rules so that optimum benefits could be reaped.-PR