Outbursts by CCP chief irk legislators

 ISLAMABAD: The heads of the Competition Commission and a Senate committee were at loggerheads on Saturday after the former alleged that “vested interests” had banded together to get anti-trust laws changed while the latter advised him to respect the will of legislators since it was they who had amended the competition ordinance.
Senator Ahmed Ali, who heads the committee on finance, clarified that the ordinance would be re-promulgated soon.

The spat coincided with the lapse of the law on Saturday. Khalid Mirza, the commission chairman, said in an interview with Dawn that in its 16 months of existence, the commission had taken action against a number of interest groups involved in unfair business practices. The CCP has been investigating unfair practices in eight different sectors and a number of orders are being awaited.

A number of hearings and investigations by the Competition Commission of Pakistan into unfair practices in different sectors have come to a halt after the lapse of the competition ordinance.

An inquiry into wheat operations is under way to check the nature and causes of hoarding and unreasonable price hike. The alleged involvement in the affairs of growers, dealers, flour mill owners and government officials is being probed.

The CCP is also conducting an inquiry into the recent sugar crisis and has issued show-cause notices to the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association and its members for alleged cartelisation in the industry.

It has issued show-cause notices to seven major producers of fertilisers for abusing their dominant position. They have been accused of tying their products (urea) to DAP, late delivery of products to dealers and unilaterally increasing their prices. An order was expected.

An order is also awaited in the Bahria University case for non-compliance of an earlier order issued by a single bench of the commission.

An official of the finance ministry has confirmed that a summary for re-promulgation of the competition ordinance has already been sent to the prime minister for further execution of the process.

In reply to a question about the delay in clearing the bill by his committee, Senator Ali said that its members were busy with the parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms.

“We will take up the matter, hopefully in the first week of next month,” he said.