The government has yet not presented the Competition Ordinance in the National Assembly after being approved by the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance, which raises serious doubts about the fate of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), a body vying for inculcating healthy market trends and discourage monopolistic attitude in market.
Market experts told Business Recorder here on Thursday that if the government would not present the Competition Ordinance 2007 on Friday (today), which has already been cleared on Wednesday by the NA Standing Committee on Finance unanimously, for approval from the parliament, there are strong apprehensions that smooth functioning of the commission would be hindered to a great extent.
The session of the National Assembly may be prorogued on Friday (today), which would give more space to monopolistic tendencies and have adverse impact on orders passed against the cartels ie associations' of companies involved in deceptive marketing practices flouting the norms of free market economy.
They dubbed it as now or never situation based on the experience how these cartels behaved when their monopolistic behaviour was pointed out. In case the Ordinance was not tabled in the lower house, it would encourage the powerful lobbies and cartels to freely manipulate market against the consumers and the general public interests.
The abolition of this institution would automatically end all the orders and on-going investigations against the cartels and companies involved in deceptive marketing practices. The end of the CCP would open door for monopolies to grow fast and engulf the whole market in the absence of any agency to check their market behaviour.
Experts said that the influential mafias in the National Assembly seemed to have managed to delay the presentation of the Ordinance in the Parliament. A number of Ordinances have been presented before the National Assembly for approval except the Competition Ordinance. There are serious apprehensions that the closure of the institution would directly hurt the genuine business concerns and entities, who believe in fair trade and business.
They believe that the CCP officials are paying the price for taking actions against the most powerful cartels in Pakistan. The CCP decisions have been highly appreciated at international forums and even India and European Union wanted to follow the CCP strategy to deal with the cartels.
However, delay in the presentation of the Ordinance clearly points towards dominance of mafia groups in the Parliament. So far, there are clear indications that many Parliamentarians are against the approval of the Ordinance from the National Assembly due to reasons best known to them.
Experts added that Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) has already been abolished and closure of CCP would be disastrous for the entire economy of the country. Due to effective orders and penalties on cartels by the CCP, the powerful groups and influential mafias knew about the powers and jurisdiction of the CCP. Even judicial fora have accepted the viewpoint of the CCP against the appeals filed by companies involved in cartelization.
These powerful groups knew that some monitoring agency can check their records and take actions in cases of collusive behaviour or other serious violations of competition laws.
Interestingly, it is yet not clear that why the CCP Ordinance has not been presented in the National Assembly after the Finance Committee referred it to the house following it unanimous approval. It is worth mentioning that the Chairman CCP Khalid Mirza has warned that in case of non-approval of the Competition Ordinance 2007, it will open a Pandora's box and will have disastrous consequences for the national economy.
If the Parliament did not approve the Competition Ordinance promulgated on October 2, 2007, its actions taken in first four months have legal backing till February 2, 2008, but legality of action taken after February 3 to date, would pose question mark on which it could not interpret. This is a conspiracy against the public to abolish the CCP as it is taking actions against influential and those who considered powerful and involved in abuse of dominance against public interest, Mirza added.