Cricket is not Cricket without Shahid Afridi

MEMORANDUM TO: Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) & Ministry of Finance FROM: AKD Securities Ltd (REP -019) DATE: March 6, 2026 RE: Reversion of Settlement Cycle from T+1 to T+2: Addressing Market Stability and Operational Viability Concerns   INTRODUCTION The transition of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) to a Trade plus One (T+1) settlement cycle represented a significant modernization initiative, reflecting global best practices in capital market infrastructure. While this move was well-intentioned and aligned with contemporary international standards, the current implementation has resulted in financial and systemic challenges which are misaligned with the country’s regulatory environment, technological maturity, and institutional capacity. The evidence from market behavior since implementation, correcting almost 20%, suggests that the immediate reversion to T+2 settlement is a prudent measure to restore market stability, protect market participants,...

Investment steps lack transparency A Ministry of Finance report has accepted that the absence of structured transparency in the Special Investment Facilitation Council's (SIFC) initiatives could undermine policy predictability and weaken the confidence of investors. In its 240-page Prime Minister's Economic Governance Reforms Agenda, the finance ministry committed to bringing transparency in the SIFC affairs, showed the report released last week. The ministry prepared the report as part of an action plan of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment. "The absence of structured transparency around strategic investment initiatives, including those facilitated through the SIFC, creates informational asymmetries that can undermine policy predictability, elevate perceived governance risks and weaken investor confidence," read the report. The report meets a condition of the $7 billion IMF loan package, which binds Pakistan t...

PREFACE MIKE MENTZER(1951-2001) Within 36 hours of signing the agreement for this book, Mike Mentzer died in his sleep of a heart attack. There had been a congenital predisposition to heart troubles in the Mentzer family. Mike’s father, Harry Mentzer, had also died prematurely from cardiac problems, and in what would seem like something out of a Greek tragedy, Mike’s younger brother, Ray, would die from the same cause a mere two days after Mike’s passing. Both his life and his death speak to the issue of genetics that Mike had stressed so often and so resolutely in his writings and seminars, for genes, as he often said, are the prime determinant of not only muscular success, but overall health and longevity. Mike received the genes to achieve muscular (and I dare say philosophical) greatness, but he was shortchanged, genetically speaking, in the department of overall health and longevity. We were lucky to have him as long as we did, and I believe that were it not for his traini...