Deceptive marketing: SHC questions CCP’s authority to act against private university

KARACHI:

Sindh High Court (SHC) has called for replies from the Competitive Commission of Pakistan to explain its authority to take action against private educational institutes over allegations of ‘deceptive marketing.’

Iqra University has questioned the authority of the commission to proceed against the private educational institutions. The university management said that the commission had received a complaint regarding deceptive marketing from complainant, Firdous Ayub, against the Lahore-based Hajveri University.

The commission widened the scope of the probe to 27 private educational institutes and issued them show-cause notices under Section 10 of the Competition Act 2010 to furnish explanation for conducting ‘deceptive marketing’, the petitioner informed the judges.

The petitioner’s lawyer argued that the show-cause notice issued by the CCP was without jurisdiction, as the latter had no authority to take such action. The court was pleaded to declare that the CCP had acted beyond its jurisdictions. The court was also requested to set aside the operation of the impugned show-cause notice.

On Monday, the CCP’s lawyer, Aijaz Ahmed Zahid, requested for time to submit comments on behalf of his client. Allowing the request, the bench, headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, directed the lawyer to file comments by the next date of hearing, which would be fixed later by the office.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2014.