ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: The Competition Commission of Pakistan is facing 179 court cases filed by almost all the sectors of economy, while the competition tribunal established two months back has yet to start functioning.

Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court, was appointed as the chairman of competition Appellate Tribunal on July 22.

With the largest number of 103 cases in Lahore High Court, the CCP is facing 30 cases in the Sindh High Court, nine in Islamabad High Court and there are 35 cases at the Supreme Court.

CCP chairperson Rahat Kaunain Hassan expressed concern over the large number of cases pending in the courts and suggested to speed up the matters concerning pubic interest.

There are ten cases filed by telecom companies against the CCP would be clubbed into one case, similarly the cement sector has filed 18 cases filed by the cement sector in LHC.

The cement sector has a long history of litigation against the anti-cartelisation agencies in the country.

Long before the establishment of the CCP the cement sector had its first encounter with the competition authority when in 1992 the Monopoly Control Authority, MCA, took note of cartel like behaviour of the cement manufacturers.

The MCA then suggested the State Cement Corporation to open retail shops in major cities and printing of retail prices on cement bags, etc.

The MCA made two more enquires and issued orders against the cement manufacturers in 1998 and in 2005, which were reversed by the Lahore High Court.

Later after the CCP was established, a search of All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers office (APCMA) conduced in April 2008 by the officials and the evidence recovered showed that quotas were allocated related to production and supply of cement to maintain the desired and targeted price.

The APCMA members obtained stay order 10 November 2008 against the release of CCP enquiry report, which was vacated on 24 August, 2009 by the Lahore High Court, and the LHC allowed the commission to pass the final order.

The commission in its order of August 27, 2009, imposed a penalty of 7.5 per cent of turnover in the case of each member. APCMA itself was fined a maximum of Rs50 million the cumulative figure comes up to Rs6.3 billion.

As the cement price is soaring again to reach its record high level, the chairperson said the CCP can not take action merely on price increase it is not a price regulator.