KARACHI, April 2: There are no instances of counterfeiting of local brands in Balochistan despite the fact that its markets are attracting rush of buyers for cheaper copies or imitations of international brands made in China and found their way into the local shopping malls illegally, says Nisar Ali Nasir, President of Ittehad Tajiran Balochistan.

Talking to Dawn over telephone from Quetta on Wednesday he said that the manufacturing industry in the provincial capital was very small as compared to Karachi and Lahore that was why the cases of imitation of local products were almost non-existent.

However, he pointed out that the counterfeiting of products of international brands of computers, mobile phones and other electronic items was rampant.

He said that most of the pirated CDs and DVDs arrived in the local market from Karachi and Lahore and added that bulk of counterfeit items were manufactured in China on orders from the local traders.

He said that his association in collaboration with Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) had organised a seminar in Quetta recently to create awareness about Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) among the local businessmen and traders.

He said that the seminar was proved to be a useful forum for owners of small and medium enterprises, who were encouraged by the speakers from the Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) to adopt fair trade practices for boosting their profits.

He said that the participants of the seminar were also informed about the procedure for registration of trademarks, copyrights and patents to save their products from imitation.

Fazal-ur-Rahman Dittu, former president of FPCCI, addressing the seminar confirmed that in Balochistan there were no cases of violation of intellectual property rights because the size of the manufacturing industry was very small.

Registrar Trademark Mohammd Mohsin told the seminar that about 457 trademarks had been registered by traders in the province of which 150 belonged to food products, medicines (50), cosmetics (25) and chewing tobacco including ‘naswar’ (12).

Controller Patents Ms Yasmeen Abbasi speaking at the seminar described patents as the intellectual property and their registration by businesses not only encouraged transfer of technology but also ensured creation of an environment conducive to foreign investment.

Registrar Copyrights Shakeel Abbasi discussed in detail the issues relating to copyrights and its importance for entrepreneurs and businesses.He drew a comparison between artists, authors and singers of the West and Pakistan and said that while the former were paid handsomely for their creative work, the latter lead a miserable life because they did not get real value of their work as a result of violation of copyrights.