KARACHI, Feb 12: As the inflation rate increases with each passing month and the quality of products continues to deteriorate, consumer rights figure so low on the Sindh government’s list of priorities that it has failed to constitute a tribunal despite the establishment of a Consumer Rights Council (CRC) over a year ago.
Similarly, sources and people engaged with the project said the 11-member CRC itself remained almost a non-functional body, raising questions about its effectiveness.
The body was supposed to initiate an awareness campaign among consumers of their rights at the grass roots level. The authorities admit to the lack of effort on their part but argue that their powers are limited.
“It’s true, we have not moved as fast as required,” said Sharfuddin Memon, the CRC chief. “But we don’t have regulatory powers, as we can only inform people about their rights concerning products, their quality and prices. We can’t regulate prices but encourage people to come up with complaints if they have grievances against any product so that we can process these with the authorities concerned,” he said.
Over the last year and more, the CRC has managed to establish only two complaint centres in the city – in Gulberg Town and New Sabzi Mandi – and that too in the recent months. The number of complaints registered by the centres remains untraced and even if they are compiled, they cannot be processed due to the lack of any court for the protection of consumer rights.
Though the Sindh governor promulgated the Sindh Consumer Protection Ordinance, 2007, last February, not a single tribunal has been set up by the provincial authorities, which may take up such complaints.
“If any businessman, company, firm, person, manufacturer or trader, supplies or attempts to supply any defective goods or deficient services or practices; or attempts any unfair trade practices; or makes or attempts to make any false or misleading representation or violates any provision of this ordinance, such businessman, company, firm, person, manufacturer or trader shall be liable to pay compensation to the complainant as the consumer tribunal may direct,” states the ordinance.
However, the aforementioned tribunal has not been set up so far, with no reason in sight both for the consumers and the CRC officials.
Ineffective without tribunal
“We don’t know why such courts have not been set up,” said Mr Memon. “The tribunal does not fall in our area. But we believe that without it, our target to bring awareness among the consumers and examine their complaints is not achieved,” he added.
Along with the courts not being set up, there has been no advantage for the consumers on the ground, as not a single case of consumer complaints has been forwarded to any competent authority, despite the Rs2 million annual grant to the CRC.
“To take such actions as it thinks justified by results of such research/surveys, information and complaints in its possession by advising and educating the consumers to make informed/rational decisions, forwarding the information to the concerned public officials/special judicial magistrate/tribunals for redress and submitting recommendations to the government to promote and protect consumer rights,” a Sindh government notification says, describing the CRC’s ambit of authority.
On one hand, the Sindh government’s lethargic approach towards the consumer tribunals remains a question, while on the other the CRC members’ ignorance about the council’s mandate and their responsibility make materialization of the project a distant dream.
“I attended CRC meetings only twice in 2006,” said one of the 11 CRC members. “It is not worth mentioning what happened in these meetings but I can say with confidence that the CRC is not supposed to do what its members have taken up as issues of concern in those two meetings.”
However, the CRC chief believes the council is moving ahead with the mandate it has been assigned and has undertaken several awareness programmes as a first step.
“We have arranged a few seminars and some awareness programmes for schoolchildren, while advertisements in the print media have also been placed with consumer rights messages,” he added. “We have also managed to arrange some talk shows on television channels on the same line. We are slow, but we are not at a standstill.”
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