Imran Zakir
KARACHI: Good Corporate Governance stands on the principle of transparency, accountability, responsibility and fairness; this was stated by Sheikh Sultan Rehman Vice President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry in a webinar on “Corporate Governance: Issues and Challenges in Pakistan, held at Federation House Karachi via Zoom link. The webinar was attended by Former Presidents Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mr. Amjad Rafi and Naseer Haytt Magoon, Prof. Dr. Abdul Jabbar, Ahsan Jamil, CEO, Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance, Daulat Ram, Chairman Hyderabad Small Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Eng. M A Jabbar, Former Vice President FPCCI, Abdul Qayyum Raza, Secretary General Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Amanullah Representative of Pharmaceutical & Homeopathic Association, Iftikhar Ghani Vohra Deputy Convener Standing Committee on SMEs and Shabana Asif, Executive Committee Member from Women Chamber etc.
While welcoming the participants, Sheikh Sultan Rehman Vice President FPCCI stated that good corporate governance contributes to sustainable economic development by enhancing the performance of companies, reinforcement of property rights; reduces vulnerability of the financial crises, reduces transaction cost and cost of capital and leads to capital market development. Corporate governance has been adopted as one of twelve core best-practice standards by the international financial community.
He also highlighted the reforms taken by the government to improve the regulation of corporate governance in 2017, including the updates to the Companies Act, the issuance of the Listed Companies (Code of Corporate Governance) Regulations and updates to the Public Sector Companies (Corporate Governance) Rules 2013. He also discussed the family legislation in the management of public and private company and talked about draft of new code of corporate governance for public listed companies under which the chairman shall be elected subject to such terms and conditions and responsibilities as provided and the board of directors shall appoint chief financial officer, company secretary and head of internal audit of companies for enhancing transparency and efficiency in the companies.
Prof Dr. Abdul Jabbar urged restructuring of Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Competition Commission of Pakistan and State Bank of Pakistan in order to improve the role and investment environment of Corporate Governance in Pakistan. He emphasized on the reforms with the assistance of private sector. He highlighted the vulnerable picture of Sindh which is severely affected during the recent monsoon season due to lack of good governance and infrastructure.
Ahsan Jamil, CEO, Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance underscored the need of improvement in corporate governance wherein private sector can play a leading role. He informed that COVID-19 has changed the working environment and now challenges related to health and safety has increases. There is lack of long-term planning in Pakistan which has created environment and climate related problems.