ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of
Pakistan (SECP) has failed to respond to queries forwarded to it by the
Senate Standing Committee on Finance over the alleged role of its former
chairman, Zafar Hijazi, in the Multan metro bus money laundering case.
The
Senate committee forwarded a letter to the SECP on Oct 27, seeking a
detailed reply from it by Dec 15 as to why the commission concealed
certain facts regarding alleged corruption and money laundering in the
Multan metro bus case.
However, despite the passage of
more than 40 working days the SECP has failed to submit a detailed reply
of the queries to the Senate committee.
According to an
official of the Committee secretariat, it has just received a brief
interim reply from the corporate sector regulator.
Only a few people in corporate sector regulator know about the corruption allegations
“They did meet the deadline of Dec 15, but it was only an
eyewash,” the official said adding: “The reply only states that the
detailed response to the queries will be forwarded later by the SECP.”
Sources
in the SECP said the whole case related to alleged corruption and money
laundering in the Multan metro bus project had been kept closely
guarded within a few hands in the SECP.
The Senate
committee had also asked why only three people had access to documents
forwarded by the Chinese regulatory body over alleged misappropriation
and testimonies of several accused conducted by the Chinese regulatory
body.
Out of those few people who had access to the
documents, former SECP chairman Hijazi and relevant commissioner Akif
Saeed had retired on Dec 15. Interestingly, the letter issued by the
Senate committee was addressed to Mr Saeed.
In the
absence of the relevant commissioner the interim reply has been
forwarded by Khalida Habib, head of the SECP’s International Relations
Department, who along with the head of the commission’s legal department
are two remaining persons having access to original documents forwarded
by the Chinese investigators.
The Multan metro bus
corruption case was referred to SECP by the China Securities Regulatory
Commission (CSRC) in December last year, but the commission maintained
secrecy over the matter for a long time. The details had not even been
shared with the Ministry of Finance by the now-suspended SECP chairman,
Zafar Hijazi.
The matter came to the fore during
investigations against the Chinese company Jiangsu Yabaite Technology Co
Ltd (Yabaite), which is listed at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, China.
The CSRC had noted undue foreign inflows in its accounts.
Yabaite
had told the Chinese regulator that it had received the amount after
completing some work on the metro bus project in Multan, and the CSRC
had approached the SECP in December, 2016, seeking assistance in
obtaining information and certain documents.
The letter
written by the Senate standing committee asked the SECP for the names of
officers who had dealt with and kept custody of the documents received
from the CSRC and whether they had ever conducted investigations into
the white-collar crimes.
The next meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance is scheduled for Dec 19.
