{"id":10233,"date":"2025-12-19T11:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T11:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/?page_id=10233"},"modified":"2026-01-13T07:23:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:23:34","slug":"enhancing-transparency-in-corporate-reporting-through-strengthened-disclosure-practices-and-human-rights-due-diligence","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/enhancing-transparency-in-corporate-reporting-through-strengthened-disclosure-practices-and-human-rights-due-diligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhancing Transparency in Corporate Reporting Through Strengthened Disclosure Practices and Human Rights Due Diligence."},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Enhancing Transparency in Corporate Reporting Through Strengthened Disclosure Practices and Human Rights Due Diligence.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Enhancing Transparency in Corporate Reporting Through Strengthened Disclosure Practices and Human Rights Due Diligence.<\/strong>
Date: November 26, 2025<\/strong>
Venue: Avari Hote, Lahore<\/strong><\/p>

Transparency International Pakistan, in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Rights, Government of Pakistan, organized a comprehensive capacity-building workshop titled \u2018Enhancing Transparency in Corporate Reporting Through Strengthened Disclosure Practices and Human Rights Due Diligence\u2019. The workshop was designed to sensitize senior leadership from Pakistan\u2019s corporate sector for evolving disclosure requirements, responsible reporting standards, and the systematic integration of human rights due diligence into business operations.<\/p>

The event convened senior representatives from public-listed companies, regulatory authorities, and subject-matter experts to reflect on the changing corporate governance landscape. Discussions centered on compliance expectations, persistent transparency challenges, and practical pathways to improve accountability, sustainability, and ethical conduct within the private sector.<\/p>

Proceedings began with a recitation of the Holy Quran, followed by the objectives of the workshop outlined by Mr. Saad Aalam, Assistant Project Coordinator at Transparency International Pakistan.<\/p>

Mr. Kashif Ali, Executive Director, Transparency International Pakistan, delivered the welcome address. He introduced Transparency International\u2019s Business Integrity Toolkit as a hands-on resource to support companies in strengthening governance frameworks and disclosure practices. He underscored that accurate, timely, and accessible reporting has become a core expectation, linking strong disclosure to improved accountability, stakeholder trust, and investor confidence. Mr. Kashif emphasized that the corporate integrity requires companies to have regular training on anti-corruption measures and codes of conduct for both directors and employees. This is vital for raising awareness of corruption risks and fostering a culture of integrity throughout the organization. Currently, this key element of anti-corruption policies remains absent in most companies reporting. He emphasized that there is a need to disclose Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contributions through annual reports and websites. This represents a critical area for improvement as failing to disclose the amounts spent on CSR programmes can provide an unfair opportunity for significant misreporting. In line with Ministry of Human Rights Business Action Plan for Companies, Mr. Kashif emphasized that companies must establish and enforce stronger anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies to address the gender gaps in corporate environments.<\/p>

The opening session was complemented by remarks from Mr. Imran Inayat Butt, Executive Director, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. He emphasized the critical importance of robust disclosure practices and outlined the SECP’s ongoing ESG reforms and its dedication to improving transparency, strengthening corporate governance, and aligning the reporting standards with global best practices. He commended TI Pakistan\u2019s TRAC Assessment for offering structured guidance to companies aiming to enhance governance, reporting quality, and public disclosure standards. He underscored that transparency is not merely a regulatory compliance issue but the very cornerstone of trust in Pakistan’s capital markets, affirming that the Commission is actively advancing this agenda through several key initiatives.<\/p>

Mr. Mekael Malik, CEO of Climate Finance Pakistan led a comprehensive session on ESG reporting landscape, noting that ESG supports Pakistan\u2019s NDCs, SDGs, and human-rights commitments. He explained that global practices have shifted from voluntary CSR to mandatory sustainability reporting aligned with IFRS S1 for general sustainability disclosures and IFRS S2 for climate-related disclosures. Leading jurisdictions now require double materiality assessments under the EU CSRD, and mandatory climate disclosures, including Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions. He added that due-diligence obligations are rising under the EU CSDDD, and assurance standards like ISSA 5000 are becoming standard practice. He highlighted that SECP\u2019s ESG Disclosure Guidelines (2023\/24) provide voluntary but structured requirements referencing IFRS S1\/S2, TCFD, GRI, and SASB, and encourage strong board oversight and clear disclosure of governance, risks, and material issues.<\/p>

He also cautioned that companies in Pakistan face unreliable ESG data and missing emissions metrics. To address this, companies need structured data systems, emissions measurement aligned with DEFRA and IPCC guidelines, automated reporting, and benchmarking tools. He introduced the \u201cCarbonTrack\u201d software, which provides live dashboards, automated visuals, data-mapping interfaces. He advised companies to align early with IFRS S1\/S2, conduct combined ESG and human-rights materiality assessments and begin systematic tracking of all emissions scopes.<\/p>

During the Q&A session, participants raised significant concerns regarding the rising compliance costs as a result of new SECP regulatory requirements. They emphasized the need for a more structured regulatory approach, noting that the frequent introduction of new reporting mandates often necessitates hiring expensive international consultants due to a lack of local technical expertise<\/p>

A subsequent session led by Mr. Kashif Ali, ED TI Pakistan and Mr. Dawar Hameed Butt, sustainability expert who presented key findings from the TRAC 2024 assessment. Mr. Kashif briefed the participants on the rationale behind the report and highlighted that corruption in the business sector affects overall business sector in the country and shared that the report reveals that the overall compliance of transparency in corporate reporting in Pakistan stands at 72.3%. He highlighted that Corruption in the corporate sector erodes foreign investment, tax revenues, investor confidence and regulatory compliance and emphasized that companies actively striving to reduce corruption demonstrate their commitment to adopting transparent disclosure practices.<\/p>

On the methodology, Mr. Dawar briefed the participants that TRAC is an assessment of how transparent companies are in their disclosure of information. The assessment is not a report on the integrity of the companies and it is just an assessment of what companies are reporting and what information companies have put out in the public, which is gathered from their annual reports and other publicly available information. He shared that the study evaluated 69 leading public-listed companies across 26 sectors. 26 companies were classified as significantly transparent and 30 as moderately transparent, with lowest average score (47.28%) recorded for category on anti-corruption programmes.<\/p>

Domestic financial reporting emerged as the strongest area, with a score of 94.35 percent, followed by Organization Transparency at 90.54%. While CSR disclosures remained uneven. Human rights and corporate responsibility disclosures averaged 60.43 percent, and procurement transparency scored average at 58.89 percent. Only four companies disclosed frevenues\/sales for foreign operations. Sectoral analysis showed chemicals as the top performer (94.3%), followed by Paper, board, and packaging (90.7%), and Fertilizer (83%). Mr. Dawar also presented key recommendations from the report emphasizing the need for improvements in anti-corruption programmes through regular reviews, training, and explicit policies against facilitation payment, introduction of two-way whistleblower systems to strengthen accountability and follow-up mechanisms, extension of the codes of conduct to agents, intermediaries, and third parties acting on behalf of companies, disclosure of CSR spending amounts clearly in reports and online to reduce risks of misreporting, reporting of country of incorporation and operations for all subsidiaries to close transparency gaps, publication of bidding policies, tendering processes, and post-award documents for government contracts, improving ESG disclosures by including measurable targets, metrics, and progress reporting and publication of country-level financial data \u2014 revenue, tax, and CSR \u2014 to align with global standards.<\/p>

Next, Mr. Muhammad Khawar Khan, Chief Risk Compliance and Sustainability Officer at Descon Engineering Limited, led a session on strengthening corporate governance through practical compliance models. He emphasized integrated compliance systems, structured risk assessments, and robust internal reporting processes. He stressed that leadership commitment to ethical risk management is critical to sustaining transparency and long-term organizational resilience.<\/p>

Moving on, Mr. Muhammad Yousuf, Deputy Director, Human Rights and Minority Affairs Department, Government of Punjab, presented Pakistan\u2019s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights 2021 to 2026. He outlined its eight priority areas and oversight mechanisms, sharing examples of provincial initiatives such as labor law amendments, and expanded gender-protection measures including GBV courts and Women Business Incubation Centers.<\/p>

Ms. Khaola Batool Sheerani, Deputy Director, Ministry of Human Rights, Government of Pakistan elaborated on human rights due diligence as an ongoing risk-management process. She introduced the Ministry\u2019s Human Rights Due Diligence Checklist, which assesses corporate policies, anti-discrimination measures, labor protections, occupational safety, access to remedy, and supply-chain standards. Participants exchanged experiences from their respective companies and discussed practical challenges in effective HRDD implementation.<\/p>

The workshop concluded with closing remarks by Mr. Muhammad Ali Mazari, Director, Regional Directorate of Human Rights, Ministry of Human Rights. He stressed the importance of embedding human rights considerations into corporate decision-making and encouraged continued collaboration among businesses, government institutions, and civil society to advance compliance and ethical business conduct.<\/p>

Participants and speakers expressed gratitude to TI Pakistan for organizing the workshop and engage in substantive dialogue on business integrity, disclosure practices, and human rights due diligence with different companies and stakeholders The workshop concluded with certificate distribution.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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