The regulators have failed to make a tangible difference as the government has completely overlooked their prescribed role, said former Chairman of Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), Khalid Mirza while delivering a lecture on the "Role of Regulators in Corporate Governance" to the members of Lahore Economic Journalists Association (LEJA).
The government's deficits, lack of both economic vision and political will are major challenges the country is facing on the economic front.
Mirza was of the view that there was no clarity in the government's economic vision. Inflation was touching alarming levels and government's deficits were all time high, but nobody was willing to pay heed to these core economic issues. He said, "It seems the government wants to weaken the system and regulations."
Criticising the role of the Central Bank as a regulator, he said that Pakistan has weak monetary policy, but the State Bank of Pakistan was printing new currency notes to finance government's deficits. He said regulators should be autonomous and independent to play their roles effectively, but it was not possible in present situation. He indicated that in many regulatory bodies, the regulators were weak or did not have required qualification and technical knowledge, which was a matter of great concern.
He underlined that there was a dire need to provide complete autonomy to three regulators, including Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), for the economic revival in the country. He said private sector was engine of growth in any economy, but no serious effort was being made in Pakistan to provide level playing field to all players.
He pointed out that the government was regulating the regulators, by appointing unqualified heads. He underlined that everybody wanted to go for liberalisation, but without strong regulation it could not flourish. He said that the government had increased its intervention in regulatory affairs, which was badly affecting the role of regulators and weaken the regulations.
Mirza believed that regulatory bodies were already facing the multiple challenges, including issues related to enforcement and regulations. He pointed out that State Bank was printing currency notes to finance the government's deficits, but was not address real economic and monetary issues.