Repeated foreign travel defies austerity orders.
Tariq Khattak
Islamabad: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), a key regulatory body tasked with enforcing transparency in the corporate sector, has come under scrutiny. Despite a federal austerity regime that restricts non-essential travel, senior officials at the SECP have taken more than a dozen foreign trips over the past year. The regulator’s refusal to disclose costs, purposes, or outcomes of these visits, despite repeated requests, raises serious concerns about its governance standards.
Internal travel records reviewed show that Executive Director (Chairman Secretariat) Musarat Jabeen undertook eight foreign trips in one year, including to Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, Qatar, and China.
Chairman Akif Saeed travelled abroad multiple times, with visits to Qatar, China, and Greece. Executive Director Asif Jalal Bhutti and an SECP Commissioner embarked on a 12-day official tour of Spain and Greece, extending their stay to nearly a month by combining it with annual leave. Commissioners Mujataba Ahmed Lodhi and Zeeshan Khattak each made about four to five trips abroad.
Despite repeated requests, SECP has not released records of airfares, daily allowances, hotel bills, or authorising notifications. This lack of transparency fuels concerns about the regulator’s accountability and governance standards. A Karachi-based businessman said that any foreign engagement should be tied to measurable outcomes such as investor-protection agreements, market infrastructure upgrades, or new listings.
Another business leader noted that entrepreneurs are facing delays in approvals and stricter on-site inspections, yet the regulator appears to have no shortage of travel budgets. He called for the quarterly publication of all foreign travel with costs and outputs.
The controversy comes as Pakistan remains under an IMF-supported stabilisation program that prioritises fiscal restraint. The actions of the regulator undermine credibility, erode trust across the board, and signal to businesses that compliance with austerity is optional. Taxpayers ultimately bear the cost through reduced trust in market oversight and the governance signals sent to investors. This could lead to a loss of investor confidence, which could negatively impact the economy and capital markets.
The SECP has yet to issue Finance Division no-objection certificates authorising such travels. This raises questions about potential conflicts of interest and the need for clear guidelines on funding sources for these trips, the sources said.
SECP requires listed companies to disclose material expenses and related-party transactions. Yet the regulator itself lacks a public travel-disclosure register, an inconsistency that dents its own standards. Extended absences by senior officials also risk slowing market reforms. Not only does the IMF emphasise curbing non-priority spending and strengthening governance, but the State Bank of Pakistan’s Annual Report also highlights fiscal restraint amid tight external financing, insiders said.
The stakeholders demand that SECP should publish a complete ledger of foreign travel, listing officer names, destinations, dates, purposes, legal authorisations, costs, funding sources, and documented outcomes. The Finance Division is urged to clarify the exemption criteria for regulatory travel and mandate the publication of approvals. Parliamentary committees may also need to enforce SECP’s compliance.
Until SECP publishes approvals, costs, and outcomes, its overseas tours will continue to clash with Pakistan’s austerity commitments, undermining confidence at a critical moment for the economy and capital markets. However, it seems complicated as one of the influential commissioners in SECP is friends with a powerful official in the Finance Division
