The Lahore High Court, directing the petitioner cement companies to file amended petitions within 10 days, has restrained the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) from taking any adverse action against them till further orders. The court passed these orders in some identical petitions field by Cement Manufacturer Association of Pakistan (CMAP) and its number cement companies, challenging the decision of the CCP against them.
The CCP had initiated the proceedings against the CMAP and its members for allegedly violating sections of the CCP Ordinance 2007 and an agreement about limiting the production of the cement.
The commission issued show-cause notices to different companies, including the petitioners, who had challenged the show cause notices issued against them and proceedings initiated in this regard. Islamabad High Court had restrained the respondent commission from taking any adverse action against the petitioners, but advised the petitioners to join the show cause proceedings.
The petitioners joined the proceedings, but later submitted an application, praying to quash the proceedings initiated against them. The commission did not pass any order on their application; therefore, the petitioners approached the IHC against the commission and the law under which the commission was constituted.
After the demolition of the IHC under the Supreme Court verdict about PCO judges, the case has been placed before the LHC. Petitioners counsel Salman Akram Raja and others contended before the court that the respondent commission had no authority to issue them show cause notice and to initiate proceedings against them. They said the CCP Ordinance was against different articles of the Constitution and hence could not sustain.
LHC judge Justice Umer Atta Bindial, after hearing the parties at length, restrained the respondent commission from taking any adverse action against the petitioner cement companies till further order and adjourned the proceeding to September 27 with directions to petitioners to file their amended petitions within next 10 days as they had not challenged the order in question specifically.