ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Monday extended the stay against a show-cause notice issued to an official of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Arslan Zafar, in connection with a case relating to the leak of data belonging to the family business of retired Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, chairman of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority.

The counsel for the SECP requested the court to adjourn the hearing on the petition, filed by its additional director Zafar, to enable the commission to submit a detailed reply.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah framed a question whether the data related to the registration of private firms should be made public or not. He asked the SECP to explain this in its reply to the petition.

Official blamed for searching data of former SAPM

Sardar Taimur Aslam, the counsel for Mr Zafar, informed the court that the human resource (HR) department had on Sept 9 informed the petitioner that an inquiry into the data leaks had been initiated against him.

He said the inquiry committee blocked the official email account and seized laptop of the petitioner without even preparing the seizure memo.

On Sept 10, the SECP started an inquiry into access of the petitioner to the data of companies, he said, adding that the petitioner was later issued a show-cause notice for searching data relating to Mr Bajwa.

According to the counsel, accessing the data of a private company is not a violation of the code of conduct or against the rules of HR manuel.

Further hearing on the matter was adjourned till Oct 27.

The SECP had on Sept 22 issued show-cause notices to eight officers and warning letters to two employees over ‘data leak’.

The petitioner, Arslan Zafar, challenged the composition of the inquiry committee and its report, saying that an officer junior to him was assigned to probe the matter.

The petition said the inquiry committee did not allow the petitioner to spond to the allegations in the mandatory time frame and proceeded in the matter in haste.

It said that the allegations levelled against the petitioner were baseless and based on mere assumptions.

SECP Chairman Amir Khan reportedly informed the prime minister that the show-cause notices had been issued on the basis of a report by a fact-finding committee headed by SECP Commissioner Sadia Khan. He said the complete report would be submitted officially after the hearing by the SECP’s commission of the case against the persons who had been issued the show-cause notices.

The SECP HR department issued the show-cause notices to eight employees, including additional director of market surveillance department Arslan Zafar.

According to the notice, Arslan Zafar is reported to have made unauthorised access to personal information of Mr Bajwa and his family members, including details of their CNICs, in the last week of July. He is accused of violating the SECP HR manual. He has been asked to provide the reasons for his act and satisfy the commission over the allegations levelled against him.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2020