KARACHI, Aug 26: Widespread use and application of substandard products and services in the local market has become serious threat to the health and safety of consumers.

There is an urgent need to establish a strong and effective regulatory mechanism using accredited laboratories, certification bodies and inspection agencies to control this illegal and unethical practice, said the Director-General of Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), Abdul Gaffar Soomro, while speaking at a seminar here on Friday.

The seminar titled “Standardization and Certification” was organized by the PSQCA, United Nation Industrial Development Organization and the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry to assemble the stakeholders to harvest ideas towards quality management.

Mr Soomro noted that there was no comprehensive regulatory policy to ensure supply of safe and quality products in the market.

In the present era of globalization of trade, market access required compliance to the international standards and evidence of such compliance through an internationally recognized accreditation system of conformity assessment bodies, he said.

This, Mr Soomro said, called for strengthening and establishing of new standardization, certification and testing facilities.

He said today’s workshop was also aimed at building the capacity of the PSQCA in the field of quality management standards certification especially ISO-9000, ISO-14000, HACCP and SA 8000.

Mr Soomro said reacting to the UNIDO’s proposal, the PSQCA in collaboration with the FPCCI and the EPB had started work on the establishment of National Standards Certification Council as a local certification body.

This body would help the local industries to prepare themselves for multi-faceted challenges under the WTO.

The DG SQCA also said that the UNIDO under its Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) programme was supporting Pakistan in building the necessary capacity to address trade related issues. The TRTA programme covered strengthening of metrology, standards, testing and quality infrastructure in Pakistan.—APP