October 22, 2001	Monday	Shaba'an 4, 1422

JUST a few days back, October 14 was celebrated all over the world by governments, standardization bodies, citizens, consumers and consumer groups as the World Standards Day.

The purpose behind it was to stress the need for quality and standardization of goods, products and services. The day in fact, reminds us of the establishment of a body named International Organization for Standards (ISO), which was established in London on October 14, 1944. This body has so far formulated international standards for a wide range of products and services.

Quality standards may be defined as a criterion that how a product or service should be assessed concerning three aspects, namely, quality, performance and environmental impacts. Products and services are standardized to ensure quality, performance and safety, both to consumers and the environment. The need for having quality standards cannot be over-emphasised keeping in view their implications for consumer health and safety as well as for environment.

As for consumer, health and safety, quality standards, be they in pharmaceuticals or food products, in home appliances or consumer products, promote and encourage improved quality of life. On the contrary, if goods and products, which are consumed by people, are sub-standard, they may pose a health hazard to consumers and endanger their lives. Local brands of gas heaters of poor quality are an obvious example of this. These gas heaters emit unburned methane gas in the atmosphere and cause suffocation. In winters every year these gas heaters claim lives of many. The problem can partly be solved by formulating and enforcing quality standards in gas heaters, and partly be educating the people on the judicious and cautious usage of these heaters.

Another important example in this regard is that of unclean and contaminated drinking water. It has been reported that about 80 per cent diseases are water-borne and 40 per cent deaths are attributed to the use of poor quality drinking water. This is largely because there exist no enforceable water quality standards in the country, whereby its quality could be assessed.

Quality standards are also essential for improving environment because quality goods and services tend to ensure maximum environment protection. It is for this reason that the theme for this year’s World Standards Day was: “The Environment and Standards-Close Together”. The theme was specifically picked up to establish the link between quality standards and environment, since conformity to quality standards ensure environment protection. Quality products or goods, be they motor vehicles, or electrical appliances, are more likely to be environment-friendly since they cause less harm to the environment. Moreover, quality standards guarantee efficient use of energy, and thus help conserve energy.

For these reasons, much stress is laid on quality standards in developed countries, and the consciousness of having quality standards is also increasing in many developing countries. In this regard, however, Pakistan lags far behind many developing countries. As a result the markets are flooded with substandard and poor quality goods and products. Nevertheless, the scenario is not as dismal as it would apparently seem. At present, the only standardization body operating is Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA).

The PSQCA was established in 2000 after a lapse of four years under the Pakistan Standards and the Quality Control Authority Act, 1996. Previously, the Pakistan Standards Institution (PSI) was responsible for formulation and implementation of quality standards. Now PSI has been merged with the PSQCA along with other Central Testing Laboratory (CTL) and the Metal Industry Research and Development Centre (MIRDC). The PSQCA functions with the help of three sub-bodies namely the Standards Development Centre (SDC), the Quality Control Centre (QCC) and the Technical Services Centre (TSC). Up till now, 4700 standards have been developed and 43 items have been standardized including edible oil, vanaspati ghee, margarine, biscuits, cement, electrical bulbs and tube lights, etc. It would be important to recall here that in 1961, the Government of Pakistan had introduced Certification Marks Ordinance, 1961, whereby it became mandatory to manufacture items according to Pakistan Standards.

The Authority is also faced with infrastructural constraints, which can be assessed from the fact that in order to monitor the enforcement of the quality standards throughout the country, the Authority has a staff of only 20 inspectors. Given these and many other problems and constraints like lack of adequate technical know-how and trained manpower as well as credible and required laboratories which could conduct all kinds of required tests for items and products, it cannot be expected much from the Authority.

It is important to mention another institution named the Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC), which was also established in 2000. The PNAC is responsible for accreditation of laboratories where tests for various items and products are conducted in order to ascertain their quality, performance and safety. In addition, the Council is responsible for periodical monitoring of these laboratories. Now the formulation and implementation of quality standards in the country would largely depend on the efficient functioning of the PSQCA and the PNAC. However, the significance of the active role of citizenry in this regard cannot be overemphasised. There are very few organizations like The Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Karachi, The Network for Consumer Protection (The Network), Islamabad and the Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) working for the rights of the consumer and putting pressure on the regulatory bodies. CRCP has been actively engaged with the ministry since 1999 for the establishment of PSQCA and is currently engaged with the PSQCA and PNAC in order to promote quality standards in the country.

The whole issue of quality standards can also be seen from the consumer’s perspective. All citizens, who are also the consumers of certain goods and services, have a right to safety, information and healthy environment, but there is a general lack of awareness of consumer rights and responsibilities. In this regard, the UN General Assembly had adopted certain guidelines in 1985 (Resolution 39/248) for the protection of consumer rights. Among others, these rights include the following:

Safety: The right to be protected against products, production processes and services, which are hazardous to health and life.

Information: The right to be given the facts needed to make an informed choice or decision. Consumers must be provided with adequate information enabling them to act wisely and responsibly. They must also be protected from misleading or inaccurate publicity material, whether included in advertising, labelling, packaging or by other means.

Healthy environment: The right to a physical environment that could enhance the quality of life. It includes protection against environmental dangers over which the individual has no control. It acknowledges the need to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.

In context of Pakistan, there is an urgent need to impress upon the government to formulae and implement quality standards. There is a dire need to promote and encourage socially responsible business practices in order to guarantee safety to consumers in terms of health and environment. The formulation and implementation of quality standards is an important consumer concern. In addition, whatever tests are conducted by PQSCA, their results need to be made public so that the consumers should be able to make informed choices while purchasing these products.

Another important concern is that of consumer representation. Consumers are not adequately represented in the standardization bodies and various technical boards. The Pakistan Quality Standards Control Authority Act, 1996 also does not ensure consumer representation in the Authority. Being important stakeholders in the provision of goods and services, the consumer’s representation needs to be ensured.

In this regard, awareness-raising among consumers need to be ensured and media could be employed for this purpose. However, in this regard, the government efforts can only be fruitful if the consumers and citizens themselves are at guards against any unethical practices by the industry and manufactures.