Leverage product at bourses: CCI approval would be needed, says Awan

Law Minister Babar Awan on Friday said the Council of Common Interests (CCI) approval would be needed for launching proposed leverage product at the capital markets. Sources said the stock members during meeting with the President on Friday complained about the delay in grant of approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in the launch of leverage product direly needed to bring liquidity in the exchange.
The meeting was informed that the SECP had forwarded the agreed product with the KSE to the ministry of finance for approval. The ministry of finance had forwarded the same to the law ministry for vetting. According to sources, the Law Minister stated that under the recently promulgated 18th Amendment of the Constitution all issues related to regulatory bodies have been shifted from schedule one to schedule 2 which requires approval from the CCI.
Both Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood Khan and Principle Secretary to the President Salman Farooqui disagreed with the Law Minister. The Secretary Finance remarked that if this was so then it would render the regulatory institution non-functional. Awan stuck to his guns with the remark that this is "my understanding of the law." The President raised a question whether there could be a problem in CCI? To which the minister replied that the Punjab CM would need to be taken on board.