FAISALABAD: Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) will like to work with Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) in order to facilitate and assist its members in competition issues and for the voluntary compliance of this law, said CCP Chairperson Vadiyya Khalil.
Addressing a function held here today in connection with the launching of CCP road show, she said that the main objective of competition law is to enhance economic efficiency and create a level playing field for all economic players. “Hence it is a pro competition, pro consumer and pro growth law”, she added.
She told that CCP has embarked on a national road show to educate businesses about the benefits of competition law. These road shows will be held in 22 cities to create awareness about competition law and ultimately achieve the objectives of economic progress, she added.
Earlier, FCCI President Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz welcomed the participants of the meeting and introduced Faisalabad and FCCI.
Lauding the role of CCP, he said that it not only provide much needed relief to the consumers but also prevents businesses from the ill impacts of anti competition practices.
He said that CCP has also played a major role in discouraging cartelization and monopolization in the country. However, time has now come to work beyond economic stabilization by addressing the issues relating to the structural challenges, he said.
Ikram ul Haque Qureshi, Member Cartelization, trade abuse and legal responded to various questions and requested FCCI members to contact CCP in case of any issue relating to the CCP. He said that CCP can also issue policy note to the Federal Government and FBR to ensure immediate payment of refund claims if it was creating distortion in healthy competition among the exporters.
He claimed that according to him, enforcement was much easier than advocacy and CCP also believe in voluntary compliance of competition laws. He also clarified various issues regarding cartelization and steps taken by CCP to discourage this trend in Pakistan.
Dr. Shahzad Insar Member advocacy also addressed the meeting and claimed the deceptive advertisements are also against competition law and CCP is currently investigating 214 cases. Similarly, 27 energy drinks are available in local market which contains injurious chemicals which are not printed on this product. He told that in America, substandard medicines worth 100 billion dollars were sold through online. This business is also flourishing in Pakistan and CCP is busy to prepare guideline for this business in order to protect the legitimate rights of consumers. Responding to a question about fraudulent housing schemes, he said that many of them are not working in according to their advertised plans and hence CCP is conducting investigation against them.
Rana Sikandar Azam, Pervez Khalid Sheikh, Rashid Munir, Khalid Mukhi and Abdur Rasheed took part in question answer session while documentaries of FCCI and CCP were also screened.
