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KARACHI, Aug 14: Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, former chief justice of the Supreme Court, has regretted that Sindh is still without a consumer protection law.
“This has led to an unchecked price-hike of essential items and marketing of substandard, look-alike and counterfeit products and medicines,” he said in a statement released on Monday.
Justice Siddiqui, who is also the Chairman, Law Foundation, said that due to the lack of enforcement of the existing food and drug laws, the consumers were being blatantly cheated and misled by glossy advertisements.
The Consumer Protection Ordinance, Sindh, was signed by Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad on August 12, 2004 and was re-signed by him three times. But it was never presented to the Sindh Assembly for ratification and as such it has lapsed.
In contrast, the former CJ said, Punjab already had a functional consumer protection law, consumer courts and consumer complaint centres.
Justice Majida Rizvi stated that without a consumer protection law there could be no social justice and consumers would continue to be cheated.
Ramazan approaching
She stated that with Ramazan approaching, the Sindh government must take effective steps to protect the consumers’ interests and keep a strict check on the prices of essential products.
Hamid Maker, chairman of an NGO, said that without consumer protection laws consumers would continue to be sacrificial lambs at the altar of greed and corruption.
He said that with Ramazan just around the corner, it was imperative that the government took the issue of consumer protection and consumer courts seriously and established price fixation committees for essential items.—APP
