Shaista Bano as CCP chairperson: Finance Division to issue notification today

The Finance Division will issue a notification today (Thursday) to appoint Shaista Bano Gillani as the chairperson Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), on acting charge basis, after the exit of the chairperson Vadiyya Khalil and two other members, as a result of an Islamabad High Court (IHC) recent judgment.

The federal cabinet last Tuesday approved the appointment of Shaista Bano, who is currently serving as member Cartel and Trade Abuse at CCP, as the acting chairperson. She is among the only two members serving at the CCP after the termination of three members.

The Finance Division has also advertised three vacant positions of members, who will be appointed within a month time.

After the appointment of three members, the government will choose one of the five serving members as the permanent chairperson for three years.

Shaista Bano has the relevant qualification, experience, expertise in competition law enforcement.

She holds a Master's degree in "Economics for Competition Law" from King's College, University of London and a Master's in Business Administration with majors in Finance from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

She is also an Associate Chartered Certified Accountant UK since 2006.

She was appointed as the CCP member in April 2019 by the PTI government.

Before that, she was serving as the director general Cartels and Trade Abuse Department at the CCP and was instrumental in busting some big cartels.

She conducted a number of key investigations, inspections, and authored various inquiry reports pertaining to wide-ranging industry and economic sectors such as telecommunications, electronic media, electricity generation and distribution, LPG, CNG, sugar, cement, stock exchanges, and jute mills.

The CCP's performance has recently remained under strict scrutiny by the PTI government.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly shown his dissatisfaction over the CCP's performance and has also tasked Dr Ishrat Hussain to reform and activate the regulator.

Before joining CCP, Shaista Bano was serving at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan as the deputy registrar of companies since 2001.

Her regulatory experience of 20 years makes her a good candidate for the position of permanent chairperson.