Do big businesses undermine Pakistan’s competition laws?

Why do we need a competition commission? The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) in its current form was created by a 2007 Act of Parliament in an effort to meet the requirements of the World Trade Organization, which Pakistan joined in 1995. 

Before the CCP, competition law was regulated by an aptly named and quite self-explanatory entity called the Monopoly Control Authority. That, at the crux of it, is the purpose of competition law. Most modern competition law emerged in the middle of the twentieth century, particularly with anti-trust laws in the United States. To cut a very long story short, governments realised the free market was prone to manipulation, and to avoid monopolies forming and resources being concentrated in individual hands, there needed to be laws governing how companies conducted business. 

If making money was a game, this was the rulebook on how to play fair. 

In developing countries like Pakistan, different autonomous bodies and commissions have come and gone. These bodies are responsible for implementing and regulating a country’s competition laws. A good competition commission wears many hats. They are sometimes referees, other times choreographers. The job of the CCP, for example, is making sure they accept complaints, adjudicate between different players, and impose fines. 

Of course there is the flipside. What if the CCP rules unfairly? That is where judicial oversight comes in. If you have a complaint against a decision of the CCP, you just go to the courts.

Sounds like a pretty neat system, right? In theory, yes. But there is far more than meets the eye. Profit recently examined internal documents from the CCP. These documents showed that the Competition Commission of Pakistan is currently entangled in over 500 cases across different courts, all filed by companies seeking to challenge its orders or obstruct its investigations. According to sources within the CCP, these companies use high-powered legal teams to exploit procedural loopholes, with powerful cartels and major corporations systematically undermining Pakistan’s competition laws.