 In Pakistan, the phenomena of corporate governance was well taken by the Pakistani corporate firms in the year 2002, when the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan formally introduced and implemented the code of corporate governance and mandated it for every listed company to comply. At that time in the country, there were 3 stock exchanges namely the Lahore Stock Exchange, the Khrachi Stock Exchange and the Islamabad Stock Exchange. Few years back, these three stock exchanges had been merged into one and currently there is one stock exchange under the title of the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Now every company in the country from any sector but if the company is listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange, the company is bound to comply the code of corporate governance in its true letter and spirit. Also, the listed companies are bound to do two things in this regard. At first, companies are bound to produce a director's review on the compliance status of the code in their audited balance sheets. And second is that the companies are bound to disclose the external auditor's review on this compliance status. So both these two items are reported in the annual financial statements of the companies. This corporate governance code since its inception in 2002 has undergone many changes and variations. Some had been deleted and some has been introduced in this period till now. Now let me list down the components of this code of corporate governance that is currently applicable in Pakistan. The first is the board composition. This refers to the number of directorships that means how many directors positions are director holds in companies. At present, a director is required not to hold more than five directorships in companies. Board diversity, this refers to the education and skill and other qualifications of the board members. Representation of the minority shareholders, the code encourages companies to facilitate the voting of minority shareholders for electing their members in the board. Independent directors at present, the code says that at minimum two members are one third of the total number of the board members, whichever is higher should be working as independent directors on the board. One female director is mandated for every listed company to be on the board. Executive directors, the companies are mandated to state the number of executive directors and their work disclosed in their annual auditory accounts. Chairman of the board, the code mandates every company to separate its chief executive officer from the board chairman. Board meeting, the code displays a certain mechanism for holding board meetings. It says that the board chairman should prepare the board meetings agenda and disseminate it to the board members along with certain supporting documents and should give reasonable time to the members to hold this board meeting. The company secretary is required to note and keep a record of the minutes of the board meetings. Then the code sets a criteria for attendance by the board members in their meeting. Remuneration of directors, the code encourages companies to have a formal policy for setting remuneration package for the directors against their services and for attending meetings of the board. Determination of remuneration, the code of carpet governance appreciates companies to display a formal and transparent procedure for determining the remuneration of board members. It prohibits any individual director on the board to determining by itself his or her own remuneration. Board responsibilities, there has been listed a number of responsibilities to be undertaken by the board members. Let me introduce a few of them. Governance of the risk, the board members should set tolerance level against risk. They should design a research risk management framework at the corporate level. The board members should ensure a formal statement of company's vision, mission and a corporate strategy in sport of reaching these missions or region of the company. What of conduct to promote ethical culture? The board ensure that there should be a formal policy to be compliant by every company officers or managers at the corporate level. The board members ensure that systems and controls should be there to address any grievances at the part of any member on the board or any officer or any employee of the company and an effective solution mechanism to that particular grievance. The board members are responsible to develop and maintain a strong internal control system for the safeguard of the firm's assets. They are responsible to take all decisions of the firm in terms of financing, in terms of investing, in terms of operating or any other domain at the corporate level. An important responsibility of the board members is to set the materiality level of the company and to develop a strong but appropriate guidelines to cover materiality and disclose its effects on the financial health of the company. Directest training program, the Court of Corporate Governance urges the companies to have all of its directors certified as the certified directors. For that purpose, our directors training program has been introduced and implemented by SECP, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. And by 2021, all directors of all the companies are required to be certified under this director's training program. For that purpose, a specialized institute under the name of Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance has been set in the country, CFO, company secretary and head of internal audit. The court urges the company to create specialized positions under these titles. The court also specifies particular experience and education level and specialized qualification for all these three positions. Responsibility of financial reporting and corporate compliance. The court lays this responsibility of corporate financial reporting to the chief financial officer and the chief executive officer. These two persons are required to endorse the financial statements before these are presented to the board members. Also, these two persons are required to endorse the audited financial statements as they are initialed by the external auditor. The court of corporate governance urges the company to set certain committees like audit committee, HR and remuneration committee, nomination committee, risk management committee. For all these four committees, the composition of these committees, the meeting mechanics of these committees and the terms of references for these all four committees have also been laid down by the court. Internal audit. The court of corporate governance urges every company to set a separate and independent internal audit function in the company. And the company is required to appoint a separate head of internal audit reporting and disclosures. Finally, the court urges that the compliance of this code of corporate governance should be transparently disclosed in the director's report in terms of board composition, in terms of board committees, in terms of director's remuneration, disclosure of significant accounting and other policies of the firm on website at significant places and in the audit financial statements and the compliance of the court along with auditor's review there on. So far as if there is any contravention in the compliance of this court, the person or persons who are determined responsible for this non-compliance, the court urges a penalty for such persons. But the court has also given a certain relaxation where a particular provision of the court is not applicable in any case by the company.