By Mehtab Haider
KARACHI: Former chairman Competition Commission of India (CCI), Vinod Dhall, on Tuesday praised the initiative taken by the Jang Group and the Times of India for promoting peace and harmony under the title of ‘Aman Ki Asha’, saying there was a need to establish close links in various areas of life for achieving sustainable peace .
During the second day of National Conference on Competition Regime in Pakistan organised by the Competition Commission of Pakistan here, the former chairman CCI said that the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry had requested the Pakistani authorities to enhance cooperation in promoting the bilateral trade between the two countries. “On behalf of the Indian business and trade, I am conveying this message that we are ready to promote trade between the two countries.”
He said before coming to Pakistan, he met with the editor of the Times of India and asked him what kind of message he wanted to deliver for the people of Pakistan. Vinod said he asked him to recite well-versed poem “Dkhai Dayta Hain” and gave them message of peace and harmony. “I have come here to give you message of peace and prosperity from the people of India,” he added. On the issue of promoting cooperation among the Saarc states in areas of competition, he said that the establishment of supra body would take a long time but the cooperation at the bilateral level could be enhanced for promoting competition. He proposed the Saarc Law Forum should have a separate chapter on competition law in order to ensure exchange of information among the regional states.
It is always very easy for the powerful lobbies and influential groups to pressurise the government through political supports, he said, adding that there was a need to ensure full backing of the government to avoid political pressures. He mentioned some clauses of the Doha agreement of the World Trade Organisation talks about the competition laws. These references have been specified in the WTO agreement to ensure free ad fair competitive trade through effective implementation of competition laws.
Earlier, CCP Chairman Khalid Mirza proposed establishment of South Asian Competition Network in order to provide a platform to the regional countries for enforcement of the competition laws. The coordination, he said, was needed between countries while simultaneously conducting inspections and search in cases of organised international cartels.
