Taking prompt action on a reference forwarded by Chairman SECP, NAB Rawalpindi has arrested Hassan Waheed Khan, Director AWJ Securities Private Limited, late night on Tuesday. The NAB team also raided the office of AWJ Securities located at 2nd floor of Stock Exchange Tower, Islamabad and seized all the relevant record.
NAB Rawalpindi presented the arrested Director of the said brokerage at NAB court on Wednesday and secured a 10 day physical remand for investigations. The brokerage house is accused of defrauding public at large. On a reference from the Chairman SECP, Zafar Hijazi, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has started extraordinary investigations over the default made by M/s. MR Securities (SMC-Private) Limited and M/s. AWJ Securities (Private) Limited, two brokerage houses.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Chairman SECP is determined to use full force of law against defrauding stockbrokers to prevent such deceitful and corrupt business practices. Two weeks ago on the sudden closure of business by a Lahore-based stockbroker, the Chairman SECP called an extraordinary meeting of the Commission to review the situation arising out of brokers default. In this unusual lengthy meeting, the Commission decided to take all measures required to stop such deceitful and corrupt business practices.
The SECP Chairman also took up the matter with PSX board and convinced them to play their due role as front line regulator. Responding to SECP's call, the PSX board suspended its chief regulatory officer pending a detailed inquiry and announced a number of steps to stream line business activities of stockbrokers and safeguard investors' interests.
The Chairman SECP had appreciated the immediate action by PSX and termed as a vital step for strengthening the stock market. Before this, the SECP Chairman sent an investigation team consisting of eleven officers to raid MR Securities office, seize and inspect all record of Securities. The five day investigation revealed that the broker house was involved in unauthorized trading, illegal deposits, non-payment of cash and non delivery of securities to investors and non-compliant with the requirement of segregation of client assets. The addresses, emails and phone numbers maintained by the broker were also fake and incorrect.
Considering the sensitivity of the matter, the SECP Chairman had specially held a meeting with Chairman NAB and requested him to take immediate action against the defaulting brokers. On the instructions of NAB Chairman, the Rawalpindi NAB has started immediate investigations against AWJ Securities and arrested Hassan Waheed Jan.-PR
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.