June 07, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 02, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 6: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) on Friday expressed its displeasure over absence of three executives of the cement industry from its hearing on Thursday.

The CCP had earlier issued show-cause notices to the executives for allegedly stopping officials of the commission from inspecting the Lahore office of the All-Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association on April 24 to find a clue to restrictive trade practices.

One of them had “absconded” with a very important file on a motorbike, the CCP inspection team has alleged.

On Thursday, none of the three executives appeared before the commission while only two, Ahmed Bilal and Shazad Ahmed, were represented by their lawyers, about whom the CCP said, were not prepared.

The hearing was conducted by CCP Chairman Khalid A Mirza and CCP members Abdul Ghaffar and Maleeha Bangash.

Sources told Dawn that the commission had decided to conduct inspection after observing that in March this year cement sales breached the previous record of 2.56 million tons recorded in November last year by reaching 2.61 million tons. This was achieved on the back of record-breaking exports of 726,000 tons and local sales of 1.9million tons.

The total sales were expected to reach 3.2 million tons at the end of March, with local sales of 2.3 million tons and exports of 903,000 tons.

Exports which had already broken the monthly record of 645,000 tons set in February had exceeded 900,000 tons, registering a phenomenal growth of 143 per cent from last year and 40 per cent on month-to-month basis.

The unbridled export of cement is believed to have caused a significant increase in the prices of cement in the domes-tic market which was not natural.

Last month, the CCP had issued show-cause notices on APCMA (Lahore office) secretary Shazad Ahmed and two other executives “to explain as to why penalty as provided under Sub-Section (2) of Section 38 may not be imposed upon them,” for obstructing the process initiated by the commission.

According to the CCP team, Shazad Ahmed with the help of Ahmed Bilal, General Manager Marketing, Kohat Cement Company and another executive who introduced himself as Ahmed Zia, (Area Sales Manager of Kohat Cement) allegedly absconded with an essential file on a motorbike.

He had blocked access and interfered with the duly authorided inspection of CCP team to be carried out in terms of Section 34 of the Competition Ordinance 2007 at APCMA’s office.