Editorial by the writer, published in Dawn on May 16, 2005


Consumer rights



THE announcement by the governor of Sindh that in two weeks the province will have a consumer rights committee (CRC) could be the first official step of its kind towards safeguarding the rights and interests of consumers. Formulated on the same pattern as the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, the CRC will have 12 members on its board, including five women. The idea is sound and should be replicated in other provinces as well because it will, hopefully, provide consumers with a forum to register their complaints against unethical practices such as profiteering, hoarding, charging exorbitant prices, price-fixing, misleading advertising, adulteration and so on. The trend these days is for the public sector to make way for the private sector, and this is thought to be generally good for consumers since the public sector is known to produce goods and services of indifferent quality and with little regard for the preferences and interests of the consumers.

However, the fact is that the increasing corporatization of Pakistan’s economy and the rapid entry of private firms providing a wide range of goods and services have brought in a new set of problems facing the consumers. For instance, bank customers have from time to time complained of unnecessary charges and deductions. Mobile phone subscribers complain of wrong billing or overcharging while cable customers have grievances about bad and unreliable service. At a more basic level, consumers of foodstuffs and medicine users have to face the consequences of hoarding, profiteering and manipulated price hikes, and reckon with the risks of consuming adulterated food products or spurious medicines — all this without any forum to register a complaint. The few agencies that are supposed to be there to safeguard the rights of consumers like the Monopoly Control Authority, the bureau of supply and prices, or food inspectors at the district government level are toothless and need to be made more effective by improving their performance and enhancing their authority to punish the offenders. The setting up of a consumer rights committee can be a possible remedy, but it should be done in all provinces through legislation so that the intent of the government to protect consumers’ rights is codified into law.