ISLAMABAD Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) on Wednesday practically stopped functioning, as its umbrella ordinance is to expire on March 28, and until the President re-promulgates it, the country would be without a watchdog to rein in cartels. CCPs incumbent functionaries had pinned their last hopes on the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that was scheduled to meet on Wednesday and Thursday. But cancellation of the meeting due to members reported preoccupation with the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms rendered them in mere despair. Government sources, however, told this scribe that it would formally request the President before or on March 28 to re-promulgate the Competition Commission of Pakistan Ordinance 2009 for the second time. But the staff and functionaries of the CCP were hopeless given the way the government has treated the Commission so far. In case, the government opts to let the Commission seize to exist with the expiry of the Ordinance within next couple of working days it would be a victory of the mafia and cartels that love to exploit weaker stakeholders including consumers in the absence of any CCP like watchdog, observed a retired government official requesting anonymity. During the tenure of its existence under the Ordinance of 2009, the Commission the other day passed a punitive order against the state-owned Pakistan State Mills for abuse of dominant position in the market. In case the Ordinance is not re-promulgated before or on March 28, the order against PSM would become the last order of the Commission.