Pakistan, Nov. 1 -- The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has marked 39,704 companies "Inactive by Registrar" after they failed to file annual returns and/or financial statements for four years.

Marking non-filing companies as inactive will make the corporate register more reliable and help prevent dormant companies from being misused, said a press release issued by the SECP on Saturday.

The inactive status will appear in the SECP's system and be visible to banks and other stakeholders. These companies will not be able to open new bank accounts until they file their overdue documents with the SECP and regain active status. They will also be unable to access financial services or register changes in their directors. ...