ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance unanimously approved on Wednesday the Competition Bill, 2009, validating all actions and decisions taken by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) since the promulgation of the Competition Ordinance.

The bill will now be tabled in the assembly.

CCP Chairman Khalid Mirza briefed the committee on the ordinance and said that with the competition law in force no one would be able to hold the economy hostage.

The committee, headed by Fauzia Wahab, was informed that the main objective of the law was to curb abuse of dominance, deceptive market practices and monopolies and cartelisation.

Riaz Fatiana said that despite regulatory powers enjoyed by the commission, the country witnessed an unnatural price hike and severe shortages of sugar and wheat and a crisis in automobile, fertiliser, cement and other sectors.

Mr Mirza said that price control was not the domain of the commission. About the sugar crisis, he said the CCP asked the government not to intervene in the market and allow free market mechanism in the commodity trade, but its advice was ignored.

He said the Lahore High Court had recently stated that the competition law was aimed at promoting competition and not at controlling prices or managing a crisis.

The committee was informed that the CCP had launched an inquiry against cellular companies, Bahria University, KPT and cement, sugar, fertiliser, auto and LPG sectors.

The CCP chief said the approval of the competition law by the National Assembly would help ensure healthy competition in every sector of the economy. He said that mafia-like operations had flourished in the country because of lack of business ethics and years of weak regulations.