Competition Commission of Pakistan named for Global Award

By Nabila Mujtaba · Wednesday, Mar 21, 2012 1 Comment

The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has become first regulatory authority from South Asia to be short-listed by the Global Competition Review for an award in the category ‘Agency of the Year – Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa’ for 2012.

The London-based Global Competition Review is world’s leading anti-trust and competition law journal that is chiefly consulted by lawyers, competition authorities, economists and academics.

CCP’s nomination for GCR award has brought a great accolade to the country, as other nominees in this category are China’s Ministry of Commerce, Korea’s Fair Trade Commission, China’s National Development and Reform Commission and Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission.

GCR Award is held annually to recognise achievements of teams and individuals from private practice 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. “Agency of the Year award for Enforcement is based on numerous factors, such as the creative, strategic and innovative aspect of enforcement techniques used by the agencies,” said an official of the CCP.

For the Commission, the assessment, thus, will pivot on its enforcement activities in 2011 during which it has issued 13 orders, 46 show-cause notices, 6 enquiry reports besides 8 ongoing 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.