Will PM intervene or will robber barons kill Competition Commission of Pak (CCP)?

[LahoreEstate]

Saturday, November 21, 2009
Competition Commission faces demise in eight days

By Mehtab Haider

ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has warned that it will cease to exist and its actions will become invalid in case the government fails to re-promulgate the Competition Ordinance on or before November 28.

Addressing a press conference here at the CCP office, Chairman CCP Khalid Mirza said that the commission had formally kick-started the required process by sending an official communication to the Ministry of Finance for taking steps to re-promulgate the Competition Ordinance 2009 till November 28, 2009.

He said that according to one legal opinion the president could re-promulgate the Competition Ordinance 2009 even after the cut-off date of November 28, 2009 but in that case the CCP would cease to exist after Nov 28 till the re-promulgation of the ordinance.

He said that the World Bank and the donors were closely watching Pakistan and inaction on the Competition Ordinance would hurt the already tarnished image of the country. He confirmed that strengthening the competition mechanism in Pakistan was one of the conditions of the World Bank under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP-II) related lending.

He stressed that it was imperative to insert a clause in the re-promulgated ordinance to protect the decisions taken by the CCP during Feb 2, 2008 till date otherwise its action would become invalid.

The CCP, he said, had taken decisions in about 20 cases pertaining to various sectors, including cement, stock exchanges, educational institution, telecom, LPG, refineries etc whereas its proceedings were continuing against sugar, fertilisers, PIA, Takaful insurance etc.

To another query regarding the penalty amount being charged by the CCP, he said that the fine collected by the CCP went into the consolidated fund and only approved budgetary amounts could be withdrawn out of this collected amount meant for the CCP. Responding to a question, he ruled out any possibility of the CCP’s verdict in case of sugar by the next scheduled hearing of November 26 as the sugar industry will apply for the application of the leniency clause, as already conveyed to the CCP in the last hearing.

The chairman CCP also told that the Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) was repealed through the Competition Ordinance 2007 and it could not be revived because the ordinance possessed legal backing for 120 days till Feb 2, 2008. So, repealing of the previous MCA was legal and it could not be restored again as this was the action taken in the first 120 days of the CCP on which there was no question mark. After 120 days, the Musharraf regime issued Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) and validated the Competition Ordinance 2007 without getting parliament’s nod.

According to him, however, the Supreme Court in its July 31, 2009 verdict declared the PCO actions as illegal and unconstitutional and directed the government to get approval of parliament on all ordinances, including the Competition Law, till November 28, 2009. If the government would not get parliament’s nod till the stipulated timeframe, the CCP actions would become invalid.

To another query about the industrial sector objections that the CCP would hurt investors’ confidence, he said that such kind of propaganda was being done by those who were ‘dishonest’. He said that being affiliated with the World Bank and the IFC, he brought around $300 million investment in Pakistan and he knew that the investors would only like to invest in the countries where favourable law and order situation and competitive laws exist.

Answering another objection raised by industries for increasing right of appeals through high courts, Khalid Mirza said that the judicial reforms aimed at reducing the number of appeals as one full right of appeal was sufficient in accordance with the dispensation of justice and practices adopted around the world.

A top diplomat confided to The News that some very important donor countries were watching the CCP issue very closely and that the Gilani government’s action would speak volumes about it matching its words of creating a corruption-free and exploitation-free environment with equally laudable deeds.

http://thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=25691