Ali Farid Khwaja named SECP commissioner for three years

The federal government has appointed Ali Farid Khwaja as a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan for a three-year term, according to a notification issued by the Finance Division.

The appointment has been made under Sections 5 and 7 of the SECP Act, 1997, and takes effect immediately. The notification states that Khwaja’s salary, allowances, and other terms will be governed by provisions of the law applicable to SECP commissioners.

The appointment comes after a selection process in which 27 candidates were interviewed in December for three vacant commissioner positions at the regulator.

Khwaja is currently chief executive officer of Critical Metals PLC and previously served as chairman of KTrade, a role he held for seven years until October last year. His academic background includes an MSc in Financial Economics from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, along with MSc in Economics and BSc degrees in Computer Science and Economics from Lahore University of Management Sciences.

The move follows other recent changes at the SECP, including the appointment earlier this month of Dr Kabir Ahmed Sidhu as chairman, as the government reshapes leadership at the country’s capital markets and corporate regulator.