The Federal government has reconstituted the Board of Directors of Pakistan Development Fund Limited (PDFL) and inducted two independent members to its Board.
The Federal Cabinet through circulation has approved the reconstitution of BoD of Pakistan Development Fund Limited (PDFL) and almost after eight years of the establishment of the fund has inducted two independent members as Directors of BoD, an official source told ProPakistani.
It is worth mentioning that initially, the Government of Pakistan had parked the $1.5 billion Saudi gift in a non-operational entity called Infrastructure Projects Financing Facility Limited (IPFFL) which was later reincorporated as the PDFL.
Since its inception in 2014, the BoD of PDFL consists of ex-officio members, said the source, and added that it was one of the reasons that the fund has failed to create any economic impact.
PDFL is a Public Limited Company established on June 2, 2014, as a Non-Banking Financing Company under Section 282A of the Companies Ordinance, 1984. The scope of PDFL was to engage in businesses including Investment Finance Services, Asset Management Services, Corporate Finance Services, Money Market Activities, and Capital Market Activities. The current composition of the Board of Directors of the Company approved by the Prime Minister on June 2, 2014, is as under.
The existing composition of the PDFL includes of Minister for Finance who will be the Chairman/ Ex-Officio, and Secretary of, the Finance Division. Secretary, Planning, Development, and Special initiative, and Secretary, Law, and Justice Division will work as Director/Ex-Officio of the BoD.
As provided under Schedule 1 of NBFC Rules, 2003, at least one-third of Directors on the Board should be Independent Directors appointed in terms of Section 166 of the Companies Act, 2017. However, during the last eight years, the successive government have failed to induct one-third of independent directors to the Fund.
The Federal Cabinet has approved the reconstitution of the PDFL Board and it will now consist of seven members instead of the existing four members. Besides the existing four directors/Ex-Officio, the CEO of PDFL and two independent members have been inducted in the BoD, said the source.
The new independent members inducted as Directors BoD includes Syed Savail Meekal Hussain and Ashfaq Yousuf Tola.
