The Legislative Evolution of Insider Trading Law in Pakistan

Abstract

Inside information abuse has caused enormous damage to the Pakistani financial market. To curb and curtail different legal instruments have been promulgated. This research aims to provide an overview of the legislative evolution of insider trading laws. It analyzes different enactments and their distinct features. The prime issues for inquiry include, how the insider trading law has evolved in Pakistan? How different enactments contributed to the present legal framework?  The main focused laws are SEO 1969 and Securities act 2015 as both these directly dealt with the insider dealing prohibition and sanctions. The qualitative research methodology is adopted for subject study. The main objective of this investigation is to explore the varying approaches and tools utilized by the state to curb market manipulation by inside information abuse. SEO 1969 was enacted in the backdrop of several stock market crashes to control the inside information abuse. While the Securities Act was enacted to streamline the legal regime and bring a restructured code to control market manipulation. The research concludes, both subject legislations lack the international standards and end up being toothless legislative devices to curtail the menace.