What will be the fate of Competition Ordinance 2007?

KARACHI - The failure of government in approving the law draft of the Competition Bill from the Parliament has not only put a big question mark on the validity of Competition Ordinance 2007, but also on the fate of actions, taken by Competition Commission of Pakistan under the mandate of the said ordinance against the monopolistic practices and the anti-competitive behaviour of the different sectors of economy.
As the expiring date of the said ordinance is approaching soon, a heated debate has been started among different economic circles about the probable status of the Competition Ordinance 2007. They are deliberating that what will be happened after 28 November 2009 when the ordinance will be ineffective as per the directives of Supreme Court on account of not passing this law from the parliament within a given time framework.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Supreme Court, in its judgment passed on 31 July 2009, declared that 36 Ordinances promulgated prior to 15 December 2007, including the Competition Ordinance, 2007, required the approval of the parliament within a period of 120 days.
At the timing of filing this report, it is yet to bee seen how the government, with regard to the judgment of Supreme Court, will tackle this issue whether it will leave the ordinance to be lapsed or with come up to re-promulgate it.
Now, all eyes are looking at President Asif Ali Zardari, who has power to decide the future of this ordinance. Because according to law, in such cases he has authority to re-promulgate or restore such ordinances under the article 89, which says if the President goes to re-promulgate it then the said bill will be needed to approve from the parliament within the next 120 days to become it law.
It is hoped that he would give a prudential verdict in this regard keeping in view the neutrality over the transparent and accountable functioning of the Competition Commission.
One should not be astonished to see that why some of the members of National Assembly were reluctant to bring this issue in the house with an intention to not give this bill the status of law from the national legislature.
The important point is that why the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs could not submit the said bill in the parliament to debate despite the fact that it had been unanimously approved by the National Committee Standing Committee on Finance on November 12, 2009. Even though, on the request of a member of National Assembly, affiliated with PML (Q) Speaker NA Dr. Fahmida Mirza had been put forward this bill to NA sub-committee in order to make some modifications within the existing draft of the bill.