First regulatory body from South Asia: CCP nominated for GCR Award

The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has become the first regulatory authority from South Asia to be short-listed by the Global Competition Review (GCR) for the Enforcement Award in the category 'Agency of the Year - Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa' for 2012.
According to an announcement, the London-based GCR is the world's leading competition law journal that is chiefly consulted by lawyers, competition authorities, economists and academics to keep abreast with the latest developments in competition law. The CCP's nomination for GCR Award has brought a great accolade to the country, as other nominees are: China's Ministry of Commerce, Korea's Fair Trade Commission, China's National Development & Reform Commission and Australia's Competition and Consumer Commission.
'GCR Awards' is held annually to recognise achievements of teams and individuals from private firms, academic organisations and competition authorities in the preceding year. This is only the second time these awards are taking place and it is commendable for the CCP to be considered for the award.
The "Agency of the Year" award for enforcement is based on numerous factors, such as the creative, strategic and innovative aspects of enforcement techniques used by the agencies. For the Commission, the assessment, thus, will pivot on its enforcement activities in 2011 when it has issued 13 orders, 46 show cause notices, 6 enquiry reports, besides 8 on-going enquiries, and 7 search and inspections in important sectors such as, jute, edible oil, shipping, concession agreements, liquid chemical, entertainment, cable TV service, electric power, telecom, fertiliser, tea and pharmaceutical. Moreover, the Commission also granted 82 exemptions and issued 76 merger NOCs during the year.
The nominations are decided by the international competition law community through a nomination and online poll over a period of three months. GCR will announce the winner on March 27, 2012. This is the second time the CCP has been applauded and has been recognised for its work by the GCR. In 2011, the CCP was the only new entrant to be granted a rating of 21/2 stars out of five in the GCR "Rating Enforcement' for being an effective enforcer in the year 2010 despite being only three years old at that time.
With such a nomination, it can be unequivocally stated that the CCP has developed into an effective world-class organisation, as a result of the dedication and hard work to discourage anti-competition behaviour. The CCP's work also received the due acknowledgement from the Government of Pakistan during the recent international conference, "Competition Enforcement challenges and Consumer Welfare in Developing Countries" held in Islamabad on December 1-2, 2011 in which the Prime Minister and Federal Finance Minister appreciated the work done by CCP.