MoF initiates process: Acting charge of CCP chief to be given to serving member

After the dismissal of the chairperson and two other members of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) by Islamabad High Court (IHC), the Ministry of Finance has initiated the process to give the acting charge of chairman CCP to one of the two serving members.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Friday that the acting chairman of the CCP would also be appointed after approval of the federal cabinet.

The vacant positions of three members shall be filled through a competitive process, which will be initiated soon.

"The vacant positions shall be advertised in national newspapers to attract applications from top professionals," sources informed.

As a stopgap arrangement, the acting charge will be given to a serving member to keep the CCP functioning.

However, with only two members, the CCP will not be able to perform full statutory functions.

Currently, there are two members, Shaista Bano Gilani and Bushra Naz Malik serving at the CCP.

Both were appointed by the federal government in April 2019 through a competitive process and their appointments were also approved by the cabinet.

One of them will be given the acting charge.

Shaista has also served as DG Cartels and Trade Abuse at the CCP till April 2019.

The outgoing Chairperson Khalil's and Member Shahzad Ansar's tenures were going to end in December 2020, while Dr Saleem was going to retire in October 2020.

They were dismissed by the Federal Government in 2018 through a summary moved by the Ministry of Finance that their appointments were not approved by the cabinet.

Later, Khalil and the other two members moved the IHC against the termination of their services and retained their positions through obtaining a stay order from the court.

In February 2020, the IHC single-member bench announced the final decision upholding their appointments.

The federal government then filed an intra-court appeal against the decision of the single bench of the IHC.

The IHC set aside an earlier verdict of a single-member bench and upheld the government's decision to dismiss the CCP chairperson Vadiyya Khalil and two other members.

Vadiyya Khalil was initially appointed as member CCP in 2010 and after completing her three-year tenure in 2013, she was again appointed member and chairperson in 2015.

During her term, the CCP did some important work in enforcement, advocacy and mergers. In 2018, the PML-N government reappointed her for a second term as member and chairperson.

In the last quarter of 2019, sugar and wheat crisis gripped the country, creating shortage and price hike of both commodities and generating unrest among the masses.

The PTI government formed a Joint Investigations Team (JIT) led by FIA DG Wajid Zia to investigate the reasons behind the crisis.

The prime minister showed displeasure over the CCP's performance in dealing with the purported cartels in wheat and sugar.

However, the Wajid Zia-led JIT did not blame CCP for the sugar and wheat crisis.

The PTI government also decided to reform the CCP and had tasked Dr Ishrat Hussain, PM's Advisor for Institutional Reforms and Austerity, to prepare a report with recommendations to make CCP a vibrant competition agency.

Dr Ishrat has submitted his report to the cabinet with solid recommendations.