London-based Global Competition Review (GCR) has awarded three-star rating to the Competition Commission of
Pakistan (CCP) in its annual ranking of the world’s top antitrust/competition authorities, a statement said
on Tuesday.
Alongside the 3-star rating, GCR has shown CCP’s performance indicator with upwards arrow as, “improving
upon its previous accomplishments.” The CCP’s 3-star rating brings it at par with the competition
authorities of countries including, Switzerland, South Africa, Belgium, Israel, and Romania.
GCR’s rating enforcement and star-rating is the result of an independent and objective process scrutinising
information and data supplied by the competition authorities, the GCR’s daily reporting, and interviews with
lawyers and economists on the quality of an agency’s work in their jurisdiction.
Their analysis rates each authority on a scale of one to five stars.
“The Competition Commission of Pakistan has made several substantial strides in the past couple of years and
re-established itself as one of the region’s key competition enforcers,” the GCR noted in its brief in the
rating enforcement.
GCR’s rating enforcement and star-rating is the result of an independent and objective process scrutinising
information and data supplied by the competition authorities, the GCR’s daily reporting, and interviews with
lawyers and economists on the quality of an agency’s work in their jurisdiction.
Their analysis rates each authority on a scale of one to five stars.
“The Competition Commission of Pakistan has made several substantial strides in the past couple of years and
re-established itself as one of the region’s key competition enforcers,” the GCR noted in its brief in the
rating enforcement.
CCP chairperson Rahat Kaunain Hassan, who re-joined in July 2020, credited the achievement to CCP’s team.
“International benchmarking will help CCP maintain the right focus and it will contribute to its better
performance,” she said.
GCR recognised CCP’s performance in enforcement, saying, “With just 45 non-administrative competition staff
and a starting budget of approximately €4 million, the CCP does well with its modest resources.”
Referring to the commission’s sugar order, it noted that CCP’s most eye-catching achievement of 2021 was the
decision to impose a record fine of about €200.6 million (PKR 44 billion) in August 2021 against several
companies for “compulsive or pathological” collusion in the sugar sector.
Similarly, the dawn raids (search and inspection) according to GCR, proved to be an effective tool for CCP
as the raids in poultry, milk, tractor manufacturers, and other sectors resulted in uncovering the evidence
of anti-competitive activities in the sectors.
The GCR recognised that the commission had made strides on the legal front and on achieving its financial
autonomy. “Underpinning its successes in 2021 was a major victory before the Lahore High Court in October
2020, which upheld the Competition Act as constitutionally valid. That endorsement was strengthened further
in 2021 by the Islamabad and Sindh High Courts.”
Achieving financial autonomy has been termed as a major development in 2021 whereby the government agreed to
hand over 3 percent of the fees and charges levied by a group of five regulatory bodies. “The decision was
made after a decade of lobbying by the commission, as well as coordination and communication with the
Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Law and Justice.”
