ISLAMABAD: Rahat Kaunain Hassan, the newly appointed chairperson of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), has assumed the charge of her office after the federal government issued a notification of her appointment as the Member and Chairperson of CCP for a three-year term.
Hassan studied Law at King’s College London and also possesses an LLM degree, said a statement issued by CCP on Wednesday. She has over 25 years of experience including over eight years in public service.
For the last seven years, she has been in private practice, as Senior Partner of an Islamabad-based law firm.
She was also a member of the Audit Oversight Board, Independent Director/Chairperson at Pakistan LNG Limited and has held independent directorships including on the boards of Pakistan Stock Exchange and various other listed companies.
Hassan served as one of the founding members of CCP from 2007 to 2010, and as its chairperson from 2010 to 2013. She has authored, co-authored most of the seminal orders passed by CCP, including those that resulted in breaking the most pernicious of cartels.
“During her term, the CCP witnessed peak enforcement against cartels and other anti-competitive practices taking the amount of penalty imposed from Rs7 billion to over Rs26 billion,” the CCP statement read.
She was instrumental in the establishment of the Office of Fair Trading within CCP and has authored numerous position papers, guidelines, policy notes on important issues of competition law and policy.
Earlier, she has also served as General Counsel/Executive Director at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in 2001.
Under her leadership, the CCP was twice nominated/shortlisted among top five agencies for GCR Enforcement ‘Agency of the year Award’ out of 42 agencies in the region of Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa, by the Global Competition Review.
It may be noted that Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Hafeez Shaikh was the country’s finance minister during Rahat Kaunain’s 2010-13 tenure as CCP chairperson.
