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A few good men
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Anjum Niaz
Help! The vultures are hovering around the dying Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP). In exactly seven days they will be able to feed on the carcass of its chairman and the commission.
Why are the government and the opposition keen to see the end of the CCP and Chairman Khalid Mirza? Simple. Everybody, and I mean everybody from the presidency, the PM House, down to Raiwind estate, the Senate, parliament, business tycoons, are known to leech off the poor. They have been named and shamed by Mirza and his zealots. The scofflaws have been penalised and told to pay up. Instead of paying the fines, they have ganged up to destroy the CCP and choke the voice of its chairman forever.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry has promised to end corruption. Will he be a silent spectator to the death of the CCP? And even if the ordinance was re-promulgated after making sure that the commissions powers are crippled and Mirza maimed, will our Lordship move suo motto?
Horror tales of vice stalk the land today. The truth will only come out once the government goes. Well-informed sources close to palaces of power say that lucrative jobs are being auctioned to bidders willing to pay the highest price. The stewardship of National Highway Authority (NHA); senior banking jobs and other well-oiled public sector positions are up for sale. A well-known government legislator is the chief collector who names a price and demands a down payment before putting the bidder in touch with the agent. Well tell you how to make a huge profit once you put down Rs50 crores as down payment, is the sort of line the collector tells the candidates.
With so much corruption around town, Khalid Mirza works 10-12 hours a day catching the thieves. Big cartels and their chums hate his guts. Hes been openly threatened by the named and shamed. You along with your twelve comrades in the CCP will be lying dead in the middle of the road, is the message he has gotten often. On the flip side, hes been offered huge bribes. An LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) magnate sent a mutual friend (he shall remain nameless) to Mirza with the message, He (the magnate) will give you something hard for you to refuse.!
Who is Khalid Mirza? And more importantly who are his enemies?
According to media reports, while the National Assembly has given its green signal for the bill to be re-promulgated, Senators Wasim Sajjad, Haroon Akhtar and Ishaq Dar are opposing it. The attack squad is shameless and relentless. Junior minister for finance Hina Rabbani Khar, a Musharraf hand-down, is doing what she does best: serve her current masters (Zardari and Gilani), and not the interests of the people. Her role in the CCP survival is therefore suspect.
Why is Haroon Akhtar, son of the late General Akhtar Abdur Rahman who perished with Zia, keen on emasculating the powers of the CCP? Haroon and his brother Humayun are wealthy businessmen. An axis of evil formed of influential politicians from Sindh to Frontier owning sugar, atta, cement mills, banks, auto industry, LPG, and media industry want Mirza gone with the wind because he spares no one.
Even the ex-faujis have not been spared by the CCP for abuse of dominance and unacceptable concentrations. Fauji Fertiliser companies were found to be practising unreasonable monopoly power and therefore given two years for compliance. April 2010 is the deadline. Who will have the last laugh should Mirza and his CCP were to wind up on March 26?
You guessed it right. It will be the cartels.
The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) were found to be fixing the purchase and selling price of any goods or the provision of any service thereby violating Section 4 of the Competition Ordinance, 2007. While the ISE has complied, the LSE and the KSE have gone to court. In a separate instance, the KSE, which refused to share its trading platform with the ISE and the LSE that according to the CCP amounts to an abuse of dominant position, has again gone to the Sindh High Court.
Fauzia Wahab, the chairperson of the National Assemblys Standing Committee on Finance, has allegedly made amendments to the CCP draft bill by removing the Supreme Court out of the equation! Khalid Mirza is most unhappy. The Supreme Court and not the high courts should decide. The SC is the appellate forum against orders of the commission without an intermediate appeal to high courts as is the present practice, he says, otherwise, the cases against the offenders can drag on for 12-15 years.
An example of how justice is delayed is that of the Pakistan Banks Association. The CCP took suo moto notice of an advertisement published in newspapers by the Pakistan Banking Association in 2007 announcing the introduction of an Enhanced Saving Account (ESA), that would automatically convert PLS accounts with an average balance of Rs20,000 to the ESA. The commission issued show-cause notices to the leading banks asking them to explain such unilateral action. The case is in the courts. Another case still pending in the court is that of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) for violating the CCPs ordinance.
But the biggest fraud being committed is by the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM). The CCP took suo moto notice of newspaper reports alleging that most allocations of the critical raw material known as steel billets were being allocated to a particular entity known to be too close to the Man on the Hill and the remaining users of steel billets were not getting these in time or in the quantities required by them. The commission conducted an enquiry and noted that the undertaking was in violation of the rules. A show-cause notice was served asking the undertaking to appear before the commission on May 19, 2009. So far, four hearings have been held in the case.
Get the drift?
Even the Bahria University was allegedly caught violating the CCPs rules. The practice of compulsory purchase of laptops sold by the university to the students amounts to tying the sale of laptops with the provision of educational services appeared, prima facie, to violate Section 3 of the ordinance. The case is still in progress.
The CCP caught PIA involved in an abuse of its dominant position in the matter of imposing excessive rescheduling charges when passengers reschedule or cancel their flights. Three hearings have been held to date.
Mirza as the relentless pursuer of consumer rights deserves our gratitude for getting many other business entities to comply after being penalised/warned/put on notice. They are Dewan Salman Fibre, Pakistan Synthetics Ltd., ICI Ltd., Rupali Polyester Ltd., Ibrahim Fibres Ltd., Pakistan Mobile Communications Ltd., All Pakistan Akhbar Farosh Federation and the APNS and 13 other members, Siza Foods Ltd., China Mobile Ltd. and Pakistan Mobile Telecom Ltd.
How has Khalid Mirza, an ordinary M Com from Punjab University, succeeded in just 28 months to shake up the whole corrupt system comprising industrialists, businessmen and powerful cartels? He boasts of no MBA degree from Harvard. Success is all perspiration, he says. Shaukat Aziz brought him as his attack dog, never realising that he would bite the hand (of unscrupulous millionaires like Aziz) that feeds off the poor. Another twist to the tale is that should Mirza survive on March 26, he turns 65 on July 25 and retires. Will the powers that be allow the Ralph Nader of Pakistan to be finally shunted out? Continuation in service is being given to deserving people like Justice Ramday and the ISI chief, General Ahmad Shuja Pasha. Why not Mirza?
Whoever saves the CCP and its chairman will be our shooting star.
Email: anjumniaz@rocketmail.com
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Anjum Niaz
Help! The vultures are hovering around the dying Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP). In exactly seven days they will be able to feed on the carcass of its chairman and the commission.
Why are the government and the opposition keen to see the end of the CCP and Chairman Khalid Mirza? Simple. Everybody, and I mean everybody from the presidency, the PM House, down to Raiwind estate, the Senate, parliament, business tycoons, are known to leech off the poor. They have been named and shamed by Mirza and his zealots. The scofflaws have been penalised and told to pay up. Instead of paying the fines, they have ganged up to destroy the CCP and choke the voice of its chairman forever.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry has promised to end corruption. Will he be a silent spectator to the death of the CCP? And even if the ordinance was re-promulgated after making sure that the commissions powers are crippled and Mirza maimed, will our Lordship move suo motto?
Horror tales of vice stalk the land today. The truth will only come out once the government goes. Well-informed sources close to palaces of power say that lucrative jobs are being auctioned to bidders willing to pay the highest price. The stewardship of National Highway Authority (NHA); senior banking jobs and other well-oiled public sector positions are up for sale. A well-known government legislator is the chief collector who names a price and demands a down payment before putting the bidder in touch with the agent. Well tell you how to make a huge profit once you put down Rs50 crores as down payment, is the sort of line the collector tells the candidates.
With so much corruption around town, Khalid Mirza works 10-12 hours a day catching the thieves. Big cartels and their chums hate his guts. Hes been openly threatened by the named and shamed. You along with your twelve comrades in the CCP will be lying dead in the middle of the road, is the message he has gotten often. On the flip side, hes been offered huge bribes. An LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) magnate sent a mutual friend (he shall remain nameless) to Mirza with the message, He (the magnate) will give you something hard for you to refuse.!
Who is Khalid Mirza? And more importantly who are his enemies?
According to media reports, while the National Assembly has given its green signal for the bill to be re-promulgated, Senators Wasim Sajjad, Haroon Akhtar and Ishaq Dar are opposing it. The attack squad is shameless and relentless. Junior minister for finance Hina Rabbani Khar, a Musharraf hand-down, is doing what she does best: serve her current masters (Zardari and Gilani), and not the interests of the people. Her role in the CCP survival is therefore suspect.
Why is Haroon Akhtar, son of the late General Akhtar Abdur Rahman who perished with Zia, keen on emasculating the powers of the CCP? Haroon and his brother Humayun are wealthy businessmen. An axis of evil formed of influential politicians from Sindh to Frontier owning sugar, atta, cement mills, banks, auto industry, LPG, and media industry want Mirza gone with the wind because he spares no one.
Even the ex-faujis have not been spared by the CCP for abuse of dominance and unacceptable concentrations. Fauji Fertiliser companies were found to be practising unreasonable monopoly power and therefore given two years for compliance. April 2010 is the deadline. Who will have the last laugh should Mirza and his CCP were to wind up on March 26?
You guessed it right. It will be the cartels.
The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) were found to be fixing the purchase and selling price of any goods or the provision of any service thereby violating Section 4 of the Competition Ordinance, 2007. While the ISE has complied, the LSE and the KSE have gone to court. In a separate instance, the KSE, which refused to share its trading platform with the ISE and the LSE that according to the CCP amounts to an abuse of dominant position, has again gone to the Sindh High Court.
Fauzia Wahab, the chairperson of the National Assemblys Standing Committee on Finance, has allegedly made amendments to the CCP draft bill by removing the Supreme Court out of the equation! Khalid Mirza is most unhappy. The Supreme Court and not the high courts should decide. The SC is the appellate forum against orders of the commission without an intermediate appeal to high courts as is the present practice, he says, otherwise, the cases against the offenders can drag on for 12-15 years.
An example of how justice is delayed is that of the Pakistan Banks Association. The CCP took suo moto notice of an advertisement published in newspapers by the Pakistan Banking Association in 2007 announcing the introduction of an Enhanced Saving Account (ESA), that would automatically convert PLS accounts with an average balance of Rs20,000 to the ESA. The commission issued show-cause notices to the leading banks asking them to explain such unilateral action. The case is in the courts. Another case still pending in the court is that of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) for violating the CCPs ordinance.
But the biggest fraud being committed is by the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM). The CCP took suo moto notice of newspaper reports alleging that most allocations of the critical raw material known as steel billets were being allocated to a particular entity known to be too close to the Man on the Hill and the remaining users of steel billets were not getting these in time or in the quantities required by them. The commission conducted an enquiry and noted that the undertaking was in violation of the rules. A show-cause notice was served asking the undertaking to appear before the commission on May 19, 2009. So far, four hearings have been held in the case.
Get the drift?
Even the Bahria University was allegedly caught violating the CCPs rules. The practice of compulsory purchase of laptops sold by the university to the students amounts to tying the sale of laptops with the provision of educational services appeared, prima facie, to violate Section 3 of the ordinance. The case is still in progress.
The CCP caught PIA involved in an abuse of its dominant position in the matter of imposing excessive rescheduling charges when passengers reschedule or cancel their flights. Three hearings have been held to date.
Mirza as the relentless pursuer of consumer rights deserves our gratitude for getting many other business entities to comply after being penalised/warned/put on notice. They are Dewan Salman Fibre, Pakistan Synthetics Ltd., ICI Ltd., Rupali Polyester Ltd., Ibrahim Fibres Ltd., Pakistan Mobile Communications Ltd., All Pakistan Akhbar Farosh Federation and the APNS and 13 other members, Siza Foods Ltd., China Mobile Ltd. and Pakistan Mobile Telecom Ltd.
How has Khalid Mirza, an ordinary M Com from Punjab University, succeeded in just 28 months to shake up the whole corrupt system comprising industrialists, businessmen and powerful cartels? He boasts of no MBA degree from Harvard. Success is all perspiration, he says. Shaukat Aziz brought him as his attack dog, never realising that he would bite the hand (of unscrupulous millionaires like Aziz) that feeds off the poor. Another twist to the tale is that should Mirza survive on March 26, he turns 65 on July 25 and retires. Will the powers that be allow the Ralph Nader of Pakistan to be finally shunted out? Continuation in service is being given to deserving people like Justice Ramday and the ISI chief, General Ahmad Shuja Pasha. Why not Mirza?
Whoever saves the CCP and its chairman will be our shooting star.
Email: anjumniaz@rocketmail.com
