The Finance Ministry has initiated the process of hiring members of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) for a period of three years and invited applications of professional persons.

The Finance Division through an advertisement has invited application for hiring the services of professionals experienced in the field of accountancy, commerce, economics, finance, industry, law or public administration. The maximum age limit is 62 years for the post of three members of the CCP.

As per criteria, in case of selection, candidates currently working in government departments autonomous or semi-autonomous bodies will have to resign or seek retirement before joining the new assignment.

The selected candidates would cease to office of member CCP on attaining the age of sixty five (65) years or expiry of the term, whichever is earlier.

An official said that vacant positions of three members are being filled through a competitive process and the process has been initiated by advertising the posts.

However, as a stopgap arrangement, the serving members will be given the acting charge to keep the CCP functioning.

The members of the CCP and chairpersons were dismissed by the federal government in 2018 through a summary moved by the Ministry of Finance, on the grounds that their appointments were not approved by the cabinet.

Subsequently, members moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the termination of their services and retained their positions through obtaining a stay order from the court and in February 2020, the IHC single-member bench announced the final decision upholding their appointments.

The federal government filed an intra-court appeal against the decision of the single bench of the IHC, and the IHC set aside an earlier verdict of a single-member bench and upheld the government's decision to dismiss them and the CCP chairperson.