ISLAMABAD: More than 20 decisions taken by the Competition Commission between February last year and Nov 28 this year will become null and void if the Competition Ordinance of 2007 is not validated by parliament before Nov 28.

Officials told Dawn that the next session of the National Assembly was expected in December and there was no chance of summoning it before Eidul Azha.

The only way for the ordinance’s restoration is its re-promulgation by the president.

CCP Chairman Khalid Mirza told Dawn on Thursday it was a legal requirement that decisions taken by the corporation needed validation.

‘The life of the ordinance was for four months and it has continued on the basis of the Provisional Constitution Order during all this period,’ he said, adding: ‘Decisions will be invalid because the existence of the CCP after Feb 3, 2008, has become questionable after the PCO was held unconstitutional by the apex court.’

The Supreme Court had on July 31 this year ruled that 36 ordinances promulgated before Dec 15, 2007, including the competition ordinance, required approval by parliament within 120 days. The deadline expires on Nov 28.

The competition ordinance was approved without any amendment by the National Assembly’s standing committee on finance on Nov 12 and forwarded to the assembly.

However, it was sent back to the committee by the National Assembly speaker for a further review.

The committee’s chairperson, Fauzia Wahab, said the decisions taken by the CCP after Feb 3 last year were at risk. ‘It is a technical issue and those decisions will become null and void,’ she added.

However, senior officials of the PPP said they were not sure if the president would re-promulgate the ordinance.

‘The legal way out is that the president can re-promulgate any ordinance under Article 89 of the Constitution,’ one of the officials said.

The CCP chief said that certain lobbies and business tycoons were against the validation of the ordinance and because of this it had been sent back to the standing committee on finance.

From Feb 2008 and Nov 2009, the CCP had taken action against a number of private and public sector organisations and business groups for violating the competition regulation and for operating business against the interest of consumers.