The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has intensified its market surveillance and monitoring in order to curb "market abuse". SECP Chairman Dr Tariq Hassan stated this here on Thursday, while talking to reporters on the occasion of launching ceremony of the book on "Judgements and Company Law 1947-2003".
Tariq Hassan made it clear that the SECP would not tolerate "market abuse".
He also said that many of the cases in this respect are under investigation.
The SECP chief said that the process of investigation takes sometime.
He said that it would not be proper to make any comments before the completion of this process.
To a question, he agreed that as a front regulator, exchanges also have a role in monitoring the situation in order to help in checking "market abuse".
"We have also asked the exchanges to help in eliminating such a trend," he added.
When a reporter pointed out that the amount of fine is quite less for those companies which do not disclose their financial results and do not announce them quarterly, the SECP chief said that the penalty in such cases is imposed under the provisions of companies law.
He said we are supposed to act in this very direction in an equitable manner.
Tariq Hassan explained that in case of first time default, a warning is issued along with a smaller fine. A bigger fine in case of a second time defaulter and in such a sequence a maximum limit is reached.
"We cannot go beyond this unless we amend our rules. Sometime ago, we had introduced changes regarding our rules and fee. As the laws are old and they do not have inflationary factors we have to determine a fixed fine," he clarified, adding that any change cannot be brought about without amending the rules.