Mehdi Securities declared LSE defaulter

The Board of Directors of the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) has officially declared the Mehdi Securities as defaulter and referred the matter to the Defaulters Committee of the Exchange to look into pros and cons, including verification of claims.
The decision came at a meeting of the board, convened on Monday to take up the single-point of agenda about default of the Mehdi Securities. Before start of the formal proceedings, Defaulter House Chief Executive Kamran Mehdi was called by the board to listen to his point of view and understand the circumstances leading to his default, LSE Acting Managing Director Mian Shakeel Aslam told Business Recorder.
Mehdi said the shares of his clients, amounting up to Rs 90 million. The matter of default came to surface a few days ago when some of the investors demanded of the house management for clearance of their liabilities and they were asked by the management of the House to file claims with the LSE. So far, the LSE management has received 80-90 claims of different amounts.
The meeting discussed the matter in details and officially declared the Mehdi Securities defaulter, and referred the same to the Defaulters Committee, which will verify the claims, determine size of the defaulted amount and take a decision to auction the membership card of the defaulter.
Mian Shakeel said the card auction might fetch at least Rs 30 million while the LSE will provide Rs 3 million from the Investor Protection Fund for payment of the claims. "We would also try to make some recovery from the defaulter so as to make maximum possible amount to the victim investors," he said.
When asked how long the committee would take to complete the inquiry, he said: "I think time should not be as important as transparent verification of the claims, determining size of the defaulted amount and then making maximum possible payment to the investors.
"Investors' protection is our top priority and we shall act and proceed in light of this perception. It is an encouraging sign that the defaulter has not fled and comes everyday to the Exchange and is willing to co-operate with us to settle the issue", said Mian Shakeel.