KARACHI, April 24: Ways and means to protect consumer's interests came under deliberation at a meeting chaired by Sindh Ombudsman Yusuf Jamal.

The meeting was attended by provincial secretaries of law, health, education and agriculture departments, besides director-general of the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority, Abdul Ghaffar Soomro, and Karachi University Registrar Prof Rais Alvi.

It was decided in the meeting that a new draft would be submitted to Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad, under whose instructions an exercise had been undertaken to fine-tune the text of the lapsed Consumer Protection Ordinance and eliminate such lacunae from the draft law as may be deemed appropriate by the cross-section of public opinion.

From amongst the concerned citizens groups, the participants taking part in prolonged discussion included former federal minister Barrister Shahida Jamil, eminent lawyer Barrister Naeemur Rehman and PMA Karachi President Dr Naseer Ahmed Baloch. The NGO activists included Nargis Rehman, Huma Bukhari, Durdana J. Bukhari and Zubair Bhatti while local coordinator of Access to Justice Programme also took part in the discussions.

It was decided that a five-member committee, comprising two legal experts and three representatives of active social service organisations, would finalize the draft along with a summary of deliberations before submission to the governor for consideration and approval.

The draft law envisaging setting up of a Consumer Protection Authority (or Commission) and Consumer Courts will then be vetted by the law department and submitted before the provincial cabinet and assembly.—APP