ADB-backed Securities Bill 2010: Cabinet likely to grant ex post facto approval

The federal Cabinet is likely to grant ex post facto approval of the Asian Development Bank supported Securities Bill 2010, in its forthcoming meeting, to be presided over by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani. Well informed sources in the Finance Ministry told Business Recorder that presently securities market is regulated by Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) under the Securities and Exchange Ordinance, 1969 (SEO 69).
Sources said SECP feels that the law remains fundamentally incomplete, lacks a proper and logical structure and suffers from numerous inconsistencies and gaps. In order to remove the inconsistencies and gaps in SEO 69, and to introduce international best practices and incorporate the International Organisation of Securities Commission principles of securities regulations, it is important that SEO 69 be repealed and replaced with a comprehensive modern and all encompassing piece of securities law, sources added.
Accordingly for effective regulation of securities market, SECP after consultation with the key stakeholders drafted the Securities Bill, 2010. Sources further said the Cabinet in its meeting on January 27, 2010 approved, in principle, the enactment of draft Securities Bill 2010. The Law and Justice Division vetted the draft bill. Submission of proposed Securities Bill to the Parliament is also one of the conditions of Asian Development Bank''s second generation capital market reform programme.
Keeping the urgency in mind, a summary for the Prime Minister was moved wherein he was requested to kindly approve the enactment of the proposed Securities Bill, 2010 in terms of the sub-rule (2) of the rule 16 of the Rules of Business, 1973.
The Prime Minister approved the summary and desired that ex post facto approval of the Cabinet may be obtained subsequently. Accordingly the draft bill was forwarded to Parliamentary Affairs Wing through Law and Justice Division for its introduction during the current session of the National Assembly. The draft bill was introduced in the National Assembly on June 28, 2010. In pursuance of the Prime Minister''s direction, the Cabinet therefore is being requested to kindly accord the ex post facto approval of draft Securities Bill, 2010, sources added.