It was a pleasant surprise to see the directors of the KSE on the television advising the nation that they have decided to continue with the floor requirements as the modalities for additional financing by the Government of Pakistan has not been 100% complete.
The following questions need to be answered by the Board members as they have some responsibility as Director and also as a responsible citizen of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. I believe the Government of Pakistan is forming a "Special Fund" which would enter the market and will buy shares of the government owned entities.
This fund is likely to be financed by National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), National Investment Trust (NIT), Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI), State Life Corporation and others. My question is that the entities involved are engaged in a very serious business and are custodian of pensioners, widows and individual investor's deposits. How can government enter into such deal just to protect the interest of a handful members of the KSE?
These members have made billions over the past several years and have always been "able to get income tax exemptions for capital gains, thus never shared their gains with the government. Now these members are asking for a fund amounting to Rs 50 billion. On what ground?
The Board Members of KSE are involved in putting on the floor on the pricing and as such the results of all banks, financial institutions, large corporations are misleading. I want to put the blame on the Board of KSE for all this misleading results of all organisations and the individual shareholders of all these companies are encouraged to file a suit for recovery of the damage caused due to these incorrect and inflated results.
It is also being reported that NIT will issue PUT OPTION only for the foreign shareholders for a price at a certain future date. I also encourage the unit holders of NIT to stop NIT from issuing these options as this will considerably reduce the NAV of their units.
Many a time we have read and heard that government should not interfere in the affairs of the business and should only make a long term policy and should act like a facilitator. The Board of KSE has now started to manipulate the aim of the government and is asking them to fill the gap in order to save the gamblers with hard-earned money of the pensioners and other stakeholders.
The crisis would not end here and the Board of KSE will ask the government again and again to fill the gap as there is no confidence in the market either from the individual or the foreign investors. The members of KSE want all the banks to be bankrupt as the margin call from the members will not be complied.
I want to ask the Board of KSE that as per the definition of a Guarantee Limited Company, all the members of the company are equally and severally liable for losses. Hence, if default is made by one broker it has to be covered by another and so forth therefore, the largest will be hurt the most.
We have also learnt that some brokers have pledged the share which was held by them in their sub-account and around 600 of such claims have been received to-date. Can any Board member of KSE have the courage to answer how they are going to resolve this issue?
The members of KSE have also forced SECP to issue an order whereby the unit holders of stock funds cannot get their units cashed. My question is what if the floor is not lifted for the next one year. I urge the unit holders to file a Constitutional Petition to get the relief as according to the law and the issuing documents it has to be encashed on the basis of NAV of KSE.
I urge the government not to bail out the members of KSE as they are taking the advantage of the situation and let them face the music. If the government bails them out then the government will have to bail out the banks, financial institutions and other institutions as well. I hope the Board of KSE will come forward and explain their rationale of misusing the nation's wealth.