Punjab government has told the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday that the rules of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) did not apply to the legislator working as directors with public sector companies on voluntarily basis, because the companies fall under the provincial government.
Punjab Additional Advocate General Asma Hamid appeared before the LHC on the behalf of Punjab government and argued that no violation of rules was committed. The arguments were continued as the hearing was adjourned till Thursday (today).
Earlier, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan told the court that two MPAs of the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Ramzan Siddique Bhatti and Kiran Dar’s appointment as the board of directors of public sector companies was against the law. The commission said that both MPAs concealed their political affiliation in order to get their appointment as BoDs.
The SECP further told the court that rules of the commission does not allow any elected member of the parliament to be office holder of any public sector company.
The appointment of MPAs as BoD was unlawful under Section 3(7) of public sector corporate governance rules 2013, the counsel said.
The counsel further said that Kiran Dar and Ramzan Siddique Bhatti kept their political affiliation secret and joined BoDs of Lahore Parking Company and that enquiry against them had also been initiated.
On it, Justice Qureshi observed that it was surprising that such unlawful acts were happening openly.
The judge directed the counsels of the public sector companies to come up with arguments by the next hearing.
Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed filed petition through his counsel Advocate Sheraz Zaka. During the hearing, Zaka argued that the audit reports of district governments of the Punjab had never been presented to the PAC nor laid before the house.
He stated that the auditor general of Pakistan wrote a letter to the Punjab governor on September 7, 2012 and reminded him to fulfill his statutory obligations by placing audit reports of district governments before the committee of the Punjab Assembly as well as before the house.
He said that this letter was also forwarded to the chief minister, but it was not implemented so far.
He said that the office of the auditor general also wrote to the finance secretary on June 4, 2014 to present the audit reports on the accounts of the district governments for the financial years 2001-2002 to 2012-2013 before the PAC but all in vain.
He said that the PAC was told in a meeting on September 15, 2015 that the audit reports of the district governments had been received from governor and submitted to the chief minister but had not been placed before the committee so far.
He asserted that according to section 108 of Punjab Local Government Act, 2013 the audit reports of the auditor general shall be considered by the PAC. He requested the court to direct the respondents to place the audit reports of the district governments 2001-2002 to 2014-2015 before the PAC as well as Punjab Assembly.
He also requested that the federal law ministry, the Punjab chief secretary and companies to abstain from appointing any member having a political or any legislative role and also declare the exercise of authority by these MPAs as directors illegal, null and void.
