The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) made significant progress in reducing its legal backlog and recovering penalties, as 223 cases have been decided, cutting the backlog by more than 40%.
“When the new management took charge in August 2023, the CCP faced 567 pending cases across different courts,” the CCP said in a statement on Wednesday.
It said that the Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT) decided 121 cases out of 210, bringing down pendency by 58%.
The Supreme Court decided 11 cases, while 171 cases challenging the CCP’s mandate were clubbed for a single hearing.
CCP says recovered Rs10mn penalty from PIA for ‘abusing dominant position’
The Lahore High Court decided 39 cases, reducing the backlog by 78%, while the Sindh High Court disposed of 40 cases, a 61% cut.
Similarly, the Islamabad High Court decided 13 cases, lowering pendency by 43%.
According to the statement, the resolution of cases has enabled the CCP to recover imposed penalties, and in the past year alone, the commission recovered Rs360 million, surpassing the total Rs201 million collected since its establishment in 2007.
One of the landmark judgments was delivered by the SC in the Dalda Foods vs CCP case, which strengthened the CCP’s enforcement capacity.
Similarly, in a case on alleged cartelization in the poultry sector, the Lahore High Court upheld CCP’s authority to pursue investigations into price-fixing, the CCP said.
