LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has stayed show-cause notices of Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) issued to several sugar mills for alleged violation of laws in a bid to monopolize the product.

S.W Sugar Mills, Gojra Samundari Sugar Mills and others challenged the legality of the notices and the jurisdiction of the CCP.

Advocate Sultan Ali Awan contended on behalf of the mills that the impugned notices had been issued on the basis of an illegal inquiry report prepared under a redundant law of 2007. He further stated that petitions against previous notices were already pending before the Supreme Court and the commission issued the fresh impugned notices to the petitioners.

The counsel also questioned the existence of the CCP saying the commission, under the law, shall consist of not less than five members and not more than seven. However, he said, at present there were only four members of the commission in utter violation of the mandatory provisions of the Competition Act 2010. He argued that the entire composition of the CCP was neither in accordance with law nor it fulfilled the mandatory statutory requirements.

The counsel asked the court to set aside the impugned show-cause notices and also declare the CCP a non-existent, invalid and illegal for being not in consonance with the law.

The court suspended the operation of the impugned notices and sought replies from the respondents by Dec 15.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2021