The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has rejected an appeal/review petition filed by a member of Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited (PMEX) for review of commission's decision regarding application for registration as broker.
According to an order issued by the SECP here on Tuesday, the application has been disposed of for Review of decision under Rule 12(6) of the Commodity Exchange and Futures Contract Rules, 2005 ('the Rules') filed by a member of PMEX against the Order dated July 10, 2014 ('Impugned Order") issued in the matter of Application for Registration as a broker.
Brief facts of the case are that the company being member of the PMEX since April 22, 2014. PMEX vide letter dated April 29, 2014 forwarded an application of for grant of certificate of registration as "broker" under the Rules. As per the details attached with the application, the major shareholder having 81.5 % shares is also the Chief Executive Officer ('the CEO') of the company. It had come to the knowledge of the Commission that he has also worked as the Deputy CEO of another company which was suspended by the Commission on February 17, 2014 due to non-settlement of investor complaints and subsequently expelled by the Lahore Stock Exchange Limited.
Consequent to this apparent misrepresentation, the Commission issued a Show Cause Notice ('SCN') to the CEO of the company for providing false and misleading information to the Commission which prima facie leads to the violation of Rule 26 of the Rules. In his written comments, the CEO stated that he never gave any false or incorrect information to the Commission and, therefore, Rule 26 is not applicable in the instant matter.
In view of the arguments the CEO has requested the SECP that the impugned order dated July 10, 2014 be set aside and company be granted with license to initiate its business in PMEX.
The SECP has reviewed the grounds and arguments made by the CEO in the instant review petition and have noted that almost all the arguments made by the CEO in this petition are mere repetition of his earlier stance presented on May 26, 2014. In view of the aforesaid it is clear that the CEO has failed to bring any new fact or evidence in support of his stance. Therefore, all the grounds on which the application for grant of certificate of registration as broker was rejected remains intact and accordingly this appeal against Commission's earlier order is hereby declined, SECP order added.