KARA CHI - The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) organised a seminar on SECPs e-Governance regime in corporate registration and regulation with an aim to share and seek input from the participants, for improving and providing more enhanced features of eServices. According to an Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan press release issued here, the seminar held in collaboration with Lahore Branch Council (LBC), ICMAP in Lahore was attended by SECP members and officials. After eServices launch in September 2008, such seminars have already been held in various cities of the country including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi and Sialkot. The idea behind holding these seminars was to share and seek input from the participants, for improving and providing more enhanced features of eServices, in line with the requirements of the stakeholders, and to make it more user-friendly. On the occasion, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Registrar of Companies, Jawed Hussain, briefed the participants on e-Services while Ibtesam Moatisim Khan, Director (MIS), made a practical demonstration of the processes in eServices. Jawed Hussain explained to the participants that the main objective of eServices was to facilitate the corporate sector, practitioners, consultants and general public at large. Through eServices, online processing of availability of company name, incorporation of companies, filing of statutory returns and applications including change of name, conversion of status of companies etc, has been made available. To facilitate online submission, the fees for online services have been set lower as compared to manual submission. He also informed that in future, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan would make online submission mandatory, initially for listed companies, in the first phase this year and then for other companies, in a phased manner. At present, offline submission is also available to the promoters and companies, simultaneously with online submission. It was also highlighted by him that an archived version of corporate records will be made available to the internal users, providing an easy access to corporate records. Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan is also planning to make available electronic inspection of records to facilitate the public in inspecting the records/documents submitted by the companies. Zaheeruddin Khawaja, representative from National Institute of Facilitation Technology (NIFT), explained to the participants the procedure for obtaining digital signatures. Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has signed an agreement with NIFT for the provision of digital signatures certificates at the subsidized rates. Muhammad Yasin, Chairman, CPD Committee, LBC and Aamer Ijaz, Secretary, LBC also spoke on the occasion.