CCP chairman outlines competition reforms

Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) Chairman Farid Ahmad Tarar represented Pakistan at the 2026 National Fair Competition Conference of China in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. He presented the attributes of Pakistan's competition regime, institutional reforms and investment facilitation efforts to the international gathering. The two-day conference, held on September 7-8 under the theme "Unified National Market, Fair Competition for the Future," was hosted by China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). The conference brought together heads and senior representatives of competition authorities from China, Brazil, France, Georgia, South Korea, Russia, Singapore and other jurisdictions. Addressing the conference, the CCP chairman emphasised that strong competition institutions were increasingly significant for investment, innovation, productivity and sustainable economic growth, while ensuring that benefits of competitive markets ultimately reach consumers. He outlined the CCP's ongoing transformation towards more proactive, evidence-based and effective enforcement. He highlighted the shift towards intelligence-led enforcement, including the establishment of the Market Intelligence Unit (MIU), which has identified more than 225 potential competition cases across different sectors. The commission is increasingly focusing its enforcement resources on market conduct that can have wider economic and consumer impact, including cartels, abuse of dominance, deceptive marketing practices and emerging competition concerns in digital markets. The chairman underscored that competition enforcement and investment facilitation were mutually reinforcing. The CCP has issued 121 merger clearance orders, facilitating approximately Rs29.65 billion in foreign direct investment.