The Role of SECP in Ensuring Corporate Accountability in Pakistan

Abstract

Corporate responsibility is the key to a stable, transparent and investment friendly economic environment. In Pakistan, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is key in implementing and coming up with policies that govern the corporate world in the country. The current paper critically evaluates the legal mandate, the operational capacity of the SECP, and its initiatives as an institution in enhancing corporate accountability. It investigates how major pieces of legislations like SECP Act 1997 and Companies Act 2017 have influenced it as well as evaluating the enforcement mechanisms that the Commission follows. The reforms, and in particular the one on digitalization, transparency and corporate governance are examined to understand the efficiency of these recent reforms. The paper also identifies salient issues that SECP has been encountering such as overlapping regulation, political issues and corporate objections and provides a comparative analysis between India and UK. It ends with practical suggestions which are meant to make SECP policy more effective and they are meant to influence corporate responsibility in the long term within the context of the emerging economy in Pakistan.