Breaking a three-day silence, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday said it was collecting the latest compliance information on its rule for mandatory shareholding by listed company directors.
In a press release, the SEC said that its November 22 notification asking directors of listed companies to holding 2 per cent shares individually and 30 per cent jointly remained valid as the High Court on Tuesday discharged writ petitions filed by some directors against the notification.
‘The commission on an urgent basis is collecting information on the latest situation of compliance of this notification by the companies listed with the capital market,’ said the SEC release.
It said that the commission had also taken steps for speedy disposal of some other writ petitions filed with the higher courts on similar grounds.
The HC bench of Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif on Tuesday discharged three writ petitions filed by directors of NCC Bank, Popular Life Insurance and Delta Life Insurance.
Investors, company directors and other stakeholders in the market got confused after the HC delivered its verdict on the final day, May 21, for complying with the rule.
Rumour hit the market immediately after the verdict that the SEC would extend time for directors to comply with the rule.
But the SEC did not come up with any announcement about its next course of action after the HC verdict until Thursday when the DSE general index lost 225 points.
 Five other writ petitions were pending with the Chief Justice challenging Section 2cc of the Securities and Exchange Commission Ordinance 1969 under which the mandatory shareholding rule was passed.
The writ petitions were filed by directors of Mercantile Bank, NCC Bank, Southeast Bank and National Life Insurance with the HC bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar on Wednesday.
 The bench, after the primary hearing, sent those to the Chief Justice for a decision