ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday accepted for hearing a petition by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) on a matter regarding the imposition of penalties on sugar mills over price manipulation and collusive practices.
The dispute emerged in November 2020 when the CCP — an independent regulatory body established in 2007 under the Competition Act with an objective to ensure a level-playing field in markets by preventing anti-competitive practices such as cartels, deceptive marketing and mergers that may harm competition — issued identical show-cause notices to the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) and different sugar mills across the country, accusing them of violating Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2010, which bans cartelisation.
A four-member CCP panel after hearing the case had a split decision in August 2021 whereby two members, including then chairperson Rahat Kaunain Hassan, found the mills guilty and the remaining two members sought a fresh inquiry. However, the chairperson cast a deciding vote that resulted in the imposition of Rs44 billion fines on almost 72 sugar mills for alleged manipulative practices.
The sugar mills challenged that decision before the appellate tribunal, which in May 2025 ordered a new hearing by a member who had not signed either opinion. In September, the SC struck down the tribunal’s order and CCP’s casting-vote decision, and while annulling the fines referred the matter back to the ‘tribunal’ for fresh proceedings based on the original 2020 notices.
Instituted by senior counsel Asma Hamid, the review petition sought a clarification on the SC’s decision to remand the matter to the tribunal instead of the CCP for fresh hearing.
The review petition pleaded that the power to make an order on the basis of inquiries/show cause notices vests with the commission in exercise of its powers under Section 30 of the Competition Commission Act, 2010. It is in exercise of powers vested in the commission that the inquiries were conducted and show cause notices were issued, orders made and penalties recovered for the contraventions of the act committed by the parties (sugar mills), it argued.
