LAHORE, July 17: Of the 132 complaints lodged by consumers against products and services during the past four months, seventeen have been decided and 54 are under process. The remaining 61 cases have been referred to respective courts.

Punjab Consumers Protection Council director Nadeem Irshad Kayani stated this while briefing the newsmen on the efforts made by the council for the protection of the rights of the consumers during the first four months of its existence.

He said 76 complaints had been received by the district consumer protection councils and the district coordination officers. Decision had been taken on four complaints, four were under process and 61 had been referred to the district consumer protection courts concerned.

Of the 56 complaints lodged with the district consumer courts directly, he said, thirteen had been decided and 43 were under adjudication.

He said the consumer protection councils and consumer courts were functioning in 11 districts of Punjab, but were covering the entire province under the Punjab Consumer Protection Act. Consumer protection councils had been constituted in Lahore, Sahiwal, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Gujrat, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Sargodha and Faisalabad, but these were entertaining complaints against products and services from the adjoining districts as well.

He said the jurisdiction of Lahore court extended over Lahore, Kasur, Sheikhupura and Nankana Sahib, and Rawalpindi court over Rawalpindi, Attock and Chakwal districts. The court in Gujrat was authorised to hear complaints from Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin and Jhelum districts and the Sialkot court had jurisdiction over Sialkot and Narowal.

The Bahawalpur court was hearing cases from Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalnagar districts and the Sargodha court from Sargodha, Khushab, Bhakkar and Mianwali districts. The Sahiwal court could entertain complaints from Sahiwal, Pakpattan and Okara districts.

The jurisdiction of Multan court extended over Multan, Lodhran, Vehari and Khanewal and the court in Dera Ghazi Khan was authorised to entertain complaints emanating from Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh and Layyah, besides DG Khan.

The jurisdiction of the Faisalabad court extended over Faisalabad, Jhang and Toba Tek Singh districts, he said.

He said the consumers could approach the council and the consumer courts for lodging complaints and claiming compensation for substandard products, misleading publicity, overcharging and dissatisfactory services. The consumers could also claim damages against defective products and dissatisfactory services and could be reimbursed the fee paid to the lawyers in the event of acceptance of their complaints.

Fines up to Rs10,000 could be imposed on those filing false and frivolous complaints. The DCOs could receive complaints and impose fines up to Rs50,000 or forward the same to the consumer courts. Complaints could be filed in courts or with the DCO offices without any fee and were to be decided within six months, he explained.