Adaptation and convergence in corporate governance to international norms in Pakistan

HG Finance;K Law (General)

Khan, Imtiaz Ahmed ; MacNeil, Iain

University:University of Glasgow

Department:School of Law

关键词: Corporate governance,convergence, Pakistan, agency problems, minority shareholders' rights, investor protection, enforcement, fiduciary duties, derivative actions, unfair prejudice remedy, judiciary, stock market, Islamic law, Islamic finance, Shariah compliant products, reforms.;   

Others  :  http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5614/1/2014khanphd.pdf

来源: University of Glasgow

【 摘 要 】

This thesis discusses the adaptation and convergence in corporate governance to international norms in Pakistan. Pakistan is an underdeveloped but an emerging market with inefficient legal, regulatory, judicial, institutional and governance norms. In recent times there have been some reforms in the corporate sector of Pakistan but lack of infrastructure and a dearth of research were barriers to reform generally. Therefore, this thesis seeks to identify corporate governance issues in Pakistan, and discusses analytically the possibility and effectiveness of convergence in corporate governance to international norms in Pakistan. To this end, it focuses on three aspects of convergence in corporate governance in Pakistan. First, it discusses the prospects and application of convergence in corporate governance in Pakistan. Second, it analyses critically, from a comparative perspective, three core corporate governance issues in Pakistan. The corporate sector in Pakistan is highly concentrated with an underdeveloped capital market and inefficient enforcement mechanisms. The conflict between shareholders and management, and shareholders inter se are major issues of corporate governance in Pakistan. The former conflict is addressed by reducing agency cost and the latter by ensuring minority protection. These conflicts are analysed comprehensively through comparative studies. Furthermore, the market and judiciary in Pakistan have failed to provide investors with protection. This thesis discusses the reform process in the market and judiciary in order to improve enforcement mechanisms. In addition, it discusses the possibility of convergence and effectiveness of adaptation in these issues. Third, as Pakistan is an ideological country whose constitution prescribes Islam as the state religion which, in turn, prescribes Islamic injunctions as basic norms, convergence to any foreign corporate governance feature will have to pass the litmus test of Islamic norms. Therefore, the thesis also identifies the possibility of filtration of foreign governance features through Islamic norms. The thesis concludes that the corporate sector in Pakistan is underdeveloped with weak investor rights and enforcement mechanisms. There is, therefore, a need to enhance investor protection in order to improve corporate governance which, in turn, will improve the economy of the country. In addition, the conclusion is reached that in convergence to Western corporate governance features in Pakistan, Islamic norms may act as a litmus test which may not be as problematic as it appears at first sight.