Regulatory Compliance

 

Regulatory Compliance

We have the requisite legal, business, and technical knowledge and experience to help clients navigate regulated marketplaces, find new business opportunities, meet regulatory requirements, and keep their businesses running smoothly. Across all our practices and the industries we work with, we help clients better understand their compliance obligations, mitigate risks, and lower the impact of regulatory regimes on business operations.

We constantly stay in contact with regulators, which helps us offer clients current and fully informed perspectives. With extensive and up-to-date knowledge of regulatory frameworks across sectors, our lawyers are in a perfect position to help clients manage regulatory and compliance issues. We are trusted advisers serving clients in heavily regulated industries such as banking, pharmaceuticals, and utility services, as well as in matters involving antitrust and competition laws.

Our regulatory compliance team is multidisciplinary. We actively collaborate across practice areas to generate comprehensive regulatory advice for projects involving, among other groups, our intellectual property, litigation, and corporate law teams.

We offer an extensive range of legal services to clients, covering all aspects of regulatory matters affecting local operations:

 

Antitrust & Competition
  • Advising on and assisting with required filings and notifications for mergers and acquisitions. Representing clients before the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCOP).
  • Guiding and counseling clients on the structures of various business arrangements, including distribution agreements, joint venture agreements, and collaboration agreements, to ensure that such an arrangement cannot be considered a prohibited agreement or an abuse of a dominant position.
  • Recommending and helping to secure individual and block exemptions from the CCOP for prohibited agreements.
  • Advising on marketing practices to ensure they cannot be classified as deceptive under local competition law.
  • Representing clients in inquiries, investigations, and proceedings before the CCOP and its Office of Fair Trade and in judicial review proceedings against the CCOP before high courts.
 
Banking & Finance
  • Guiding and helping banks and financial institutions with all aspects of internal organization, governance, transactions, and business operations.
  • Providing counsel and assistance during the processes of obtaining required licenses and ensuring compliance with local banking and financial services laws, rules, regulations, and directives issued by the State Bank of Pakistan and the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan.
  • Advising on and assisting with the permissibility and structuring of proposed activities, programs, and risk management plans.
  • Representing clients in formal and informal inquiries and investigations before regulators under the Banking Companies Ordinance, 1962; the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Act, 1997; the Securities Act, 2015; the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947; and the Futures Market Act, 2016, and in legal proceedings before courts and specialized tribunals.

 

E-commerce, Internet, & Social Media
  • Providing counsel on local regulatory regimes, and helping with compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
  • Advising on sensitive issues, such as the moderation of online content. Representing social media companies before the PTA in proceedings involving the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act of 2016 and in appeals and judicial review proceedings before high courts.

 

Environment
  • Helping clients in many industries with compliance with local environmental laws and national environmental quality standards.
  • Counseling on sensitive environmental law issues, such as handling toxic and hazardous substances; treating industrial waste, effluents, and water contamination; and managing biodiversity loss and land degradation due to economic and industrial activities.
  • Advising on and helping to prepare and implement effective waste management policies in light of local laws and regulations.
  • Guiding and assisting with the prep work, submissions, and approvals of initial environmental examinations and environmental impact assessments for various types of projects.
  • Representing clients before federal and provincial environmental protection agencies during inquiries and investigations, before environmental tribunals in trial proceedings, and before local courts in litigation matters.

 

IT & Telecommunications
  • Advising and helping clients apply for and obtain type approval certificates, telecom licenses, infrastructure licenses, class value-added services licenses, radio broadcast services licenses (including Inmarsat, AMS, and MMS), and third-party service provider licenses for mobile banking and other FinTech services.
  • Providing guidance and support for industry-specific agreements, such as interconnection and infrastructure sharing arrangements between telecom licensees.
  • Counseling on sensitive issues like the pricing of telecom services and a company’s significant market player status.
  • Advising on regulatory requirements under local telecom laws and regulations.
  • Guiding and helping with transactions involving mergers and acquisitions of companies in the telecom sector and when obtaining regulatory approvals of such transactions.
  • Representing telecom licensees in administrative investigations, inquiries, and enforcement actions taken by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and in appeals and judicial review proceedings before high courts.

 

Life Sciences
  • Providing guidance and assistance throughout the entire life cycles of medical products, including drugs, devices, alternative medicines, heath products, cosmetics, and dietary supplements.
  • Helping with product classification, and advising on applicable regulatory requirements.
  • Assisting with the preparation and submission of registration and enlistment applications, and helping to obtain required approvals and licenses for manufacturing, importing, exporting, marketing, distributing, and selling drugs, alternative medicines, and health products.
  • Counseling on sensitive issues such as the control and regulation of narcotics, drugs, and psychotropic substances.
  • Advising on compliance obligations and enforcement actions, and representing clients in enforcement proceedings before the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan and in appeals.

 

Mining & Minerals
  • Advising and assisting mining companies in obtaining reconnaissance and exploration licenses and also mining leases from provincial mining and mineral departments.
  • Counseling and helping clients better understand and comply with requirements under applicable mining rules.
  • Guiding and providing support for transactions involving acquisitions or mergers of mining companies and acquisitions or transfers of licenses and mining leases and when obtaining regulatory consents and approvals of such transactions.
  • Representing clients in investigations, inquiries, and administrative appeals under provincial mining rules.
 
Oil & Gas
  • Providing counsel on the complex federal and provincial regulatory regimes governing upstream, midstream, downstream, onshore, and offshore activities in the oil and gas sector.
  • Advising on and assisting with obtaining reconnaissance permits, exploration licenses, and production leases.
  • Recommending and helping to identify and obtain the necessary consents, approvals, and licenses for the transportation and storage of petroleum products in compliance with applicable safety requirements.
  • Guiding and supporting clients as they identify, obtain, and maintain the licenses, consents, and authorizations required under federal and provincial laws to carry out activities related to refining, processing, and marketing petroleum products.
  • Helping with routine regulatory compliance matters.
  • Advising on and providing support for transactions involving acquisitions or mergers of entities operating in the oil and gas sector and when obtaining regulatory consents and approvals.
  • Representing clients in enforcement and other regulatory proceedings before the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and other federal and provincial regulatory agencies.
Power
  • Providing support and guidance when obtaining licenses for the generation of electric power through thermal, nuclear, hydroelectric, and renewable energy projects as well as the transmission and distribution of that power.
  • Helping licensees with routine regulatory compliance matters.
  • Representing licensees in enforcement and other regulatory proceedings, including tariff petitions before the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority and the federal government.
  • Reviewing and advising on industry-specific agreements, such as operation and maintenance agreements, fuel supply agreements, and power purchase agreements.