ISLAMABAD          -             Shaista Bano Gillani has taken charge as the chairperson of Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP).

The Finance Division on Monday issued a notification after the federal cabinet in its meeting held on 28 April 2020 approved the appointment of Shaista Bano as the chairperson CCP, on acting charge basis. Ms Bano is among the only two members serving at the CCP after the termination of three members.

The post of chairperson CCP was vacant after Islamabad High Court dismissed the former chairperson and two other members of the CCP. The government has already started the process of appointing three members of the CCP. The Finance Division has advertised three vacant positions of members, who will be appointed within a month time. After the appointment of three members, the government will choose one of the five serving members as the permanent chairperson for three years. With only two members, the CCP will not be able to perform full statutory functions.

It is worth mentioning here that Prime Minister Imran Khan had recently expressed concerns over the CCP’s unsatisfactory performance to check cartelisation of flour millers. Prime Minister had directed the Finance Division to review CCP’s performance against prescribed benchmarks. The PTI government also decided to reform the CCP and had tasked Dr Ishrat Hussain, PM’s Advisor for Institutional Reforms and Austerity, to prepare a report with recommendations to make CCP a vibrant competition agency. Dr Ishrat had submitted his report to the cabinet with solid recommendations.

Shaista Bano holds a Master’s degree in ‘Economics for Competition Law’ from King’s College, University of London and a Master’s in Business Administration with majors in Finance from Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad. She is also an Associate Chartered Certified Accountant UK since 2006.

Shaista Bano served at the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan as the Deputy Registrar of Companies till 2007, and then joined CCP in 2007. As the Director General Cartels and Trade Abuse at CCP, she has led a number of key investigations, inspections, and authored various inquiry reports pertaining to wide-ranging industry and economic sectors such as telecommunications, electronic media, electricity generation and distribution, LPG, CNG, sugar, cement, stock exchanges, jute mills. These investigations, searches and enquiry reports have resulted in unearthing some big cartels and abusive practices. In April 2019, she was appointed as Member CCP.