Competition Commission faces pressure

Informed sources said that CCP's inquiries and decisions taken against banks, cement association and fertilizer companies, involved in cartalisation, was costing it more and more problems including the non implementation of competition law. This has particularly resulted in government's continued refusal to allocate any budget for CCP.

Also, sources said that the government was not allowing the commission to secure "tied sourcing" of funding to run its day to day financial affairs. The issue has compounded as the government has not even confirm the salary structure of the members of the commission.

The ministry of finance has been approached to settle financial issues of the commission which were pending for last two years. The PML(Q) and caretaker governments kept pending the issue and now the PPP-led coalition government was also delaying it reportedly at the behest of the cartels.

Sources said that the ministry of industries and production has written a letter to the officials of the President and Prime Minister's secretariats urging them to "stop" the Competition Commission from taking action against the cartels involved in increasing prices and thus fleecing consumers.

Vested interest, sources said, was attacking the Commission from every side and did not want it to continue its job — a demand that had been rejected by its Chairman Khalid Mirza. He has told the higher authorities that as long as he was the head of the organisation he would continue chasing illicit cartels which were making the lives of the citizen miserably by increasing their prices every now and then and that too without any justification.

The ministries of finance and industries, sources said, were told that Turkey has recently taken action against 17 steel mills involved in manipulation but no hue and cry was made by anybody there and that why this was in Pakistan.

Sources said that CPP was "independent" perhaps only in papers but the fact of the matter was that ever since it was converted into Commission from defunct Monopoly Control Authority (MCA), it was facing pressures to avoid taking action against cartels.

The World Bank which had provided about $2 million funding to the Commission for its capacity building was also being objected by some ministries.

"The business empire in the country is attacking the Commission to wind up its investigations and inquires against cartels," a source said adding that the Commission had been besieged by the vested interest which was creating hurdles in the way of the organisation. He said highest people in the land have come forward for the protection of the cartels.

The ministry of finance was informed that Competition commissions in the world which were recently established in various countries particularly China, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia were performing their duties satisfactorily to restrict the activities of the cartels and their citizens were appreciating the move.

The role of the Commission in Pakistan is being appreciated by the international financial institutions who wanted fair business practices by eliminating cartels and providing level playing field to all, sources said.