Islamabad: The PILDAT Legislative Brief on the Competition Ordinance recommends that the Senate should pass the law after modifications to the existing text relating to the appointment of the members and chairperson of the Competition Commission, who should be appointed following consultation with the Opposition in the Parliament.

PILDAT Legislative Brief also states that the entry, search and seizure powers of the Commission are extensive. Consideration should be given to limiting these powers to circumstances in which reasonable suspicion of a contravention is present and/or to circumstances in which judicial approval is given. Similarly, it recommends that the current text of the Competition law provides a single mechanism of appeal against the Commission�s orders (both procedural and substantive) to the appellate bench of the Commission and the Supreme Court. Consideration should be given to providing that procedural appeals are appealable to a lower level of court such as the High Court, rather than burdening the Supreme Court with appeals in wholly procedural matters.

The Competition Ordinance 2007 was promulgated on October 2, 2007 by the then-President Gen. Pervez Musharraf by way of Presidential Ordinance LII of 2007. Following the July 2009 Supreme Court decision it was one of the Ordinances that were required to be approved by the Parliament by November 28, 2009 or it would lapse. As a result it was laid before the National Assembly on October 14, 2009 by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Senator Babar Awan and considered by the Standing Committee on Finance, which unanimously approved its content. However, when the Ordinance returned to the National Assembly on November 10, 2009, some members of the Committee complained that they had been unable to attend the meeting. The Ordinance was returned to the Committee for further consideration by the Speaker of the National Assembly. As no further sittings of the National Assembly took place before November 28, 2009, the date upon which the Ordinance would lapse, it was re-promulgated by the President on November 27, 2009 and continues in force for four months. It was subsequently approved by the National Assembly on January 27, 2010. It must now be approved by the Senate before the end of March 2010 and receive Presidential assent before becoming law.

PILDAT has analysed the Ordinance in the shape of a Legislative Brief for the benefit of Parliamentarians, stakeholders, news media and the citizens.

PILDAT recommends that the Ordinance be approved to ensure continued protection to the market and consumers but consideration needs to be given to the appointment of members and/or chairman following consultation with the Opposition. Consideration also needs to be given to providing a short form appeal mechanism in relation to procedural orders (to a lower level of court that the Supreme Court) while the Senate of Pakistan must also consider the requirement for judicial approval of procedural orders involving entry, search, seizure, etc., and that such approval be dependent upon reasonable suspicion.