CCP chairman removal illegal

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD (September 05 2009): Khalid A. Mirza is said to have been illegally removed from the Chairmanship of Competition Commission of Pakistan. According to informed sources, the CCP chairman is a tenure appointment and Mirza's term expires on 20 July next year. It appears that Establishment Division while putting up the names of bureaucrats continuing to hold top positions in bureaucracy, after their retirement, and now under contract has erroneously included the name of the regulatory body chairman.

In case the prime minister does not reverse the decision to remove the CCP chairman it would reinforce public perception that Mirza's aggressive posture to tackle powerful cartels in various businesses was the only or main reason behind his "forced" exit.

The CCP has ministry of finance as its line ministry and the federal minister for finance may need to remind the prime minister's secretariat about the glaring illegality in the removal of a regulator on tenure appointment in the absence of recourse to relevant legal procedures laid down in the Competition Commission of Pakistan Ordinance.

The sources pointed out that CCP was established on 2nd October, 2007 under the Competition Ordinance, 2007. Major aim of the ordinance is to provide for a legal framework to create a business environment based on healthy competition towards improving economic efficiency, developing competitiveness and protecting consumers from anti-competitive practices.

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