“Please, just tell me when the supply will be restored?” asked Mrs Manzoor, a typical Karachiite, over the phone. “It will be revived in an hour. Work is in progress”.

The response was cold and measured from the complaint centre of the privatised power supplier Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC). The lady was lucky, for her call was attended. If it took another twenty hours for the electricity to be restored, it was not anything out of the ordinary.

Prolonged power outages are common in this cosmopolitan port city. Most law abiding Karachiites have given up. They get themselves generators or UPS to move on. Those who cannot afford such gadgets, endure the pain. The KESC complaint centres confirmed that while outages increased the number of complaints had fallen over time this summer. So now they don't even complain. The customers of KESC probably prefer silent suffering over feeling humiliatingly defeated.

It would, however, not be fair to blame the defeatist attitude of the citizens solely on KESC. All providers of products and services chip in their bit. Customers are wronged by marketers of most services and products, in the public and private sectors. There are exceptions but generally retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, health practitioners, educationists, insurers, bankers, etc. etc., seem to be in a grand alliance against their most natural partners in business: customers. They become victims of unfair business practices.

Many a time's people suffer their frustrations without protest. Sometimes, however, they take it out on streets. Very rarely, only in extreme cases, do they actually proceed against unfair practices in the court of law. There was no consolidated data available as to how many cases were reported by the customers, under which laws and the outcome of most of such cases.

Where else in the world, is this big a body of customers, about 15 million strong, as vulnerable as in Karachi? The answer is simple: nowhere. Ignorant customers suffer everywhere in the country. Karachiites are at the loosing end in their commercial life despite being comparatively most well informed. And there is little they can do about it. More ingenious amongst them sometimes use power of money or connections to persuade the providers into meeting their commitments but that is hardly a solution for teeming millions.

In Karachi the rising pressure of cumulative demand, because of the higher than average rate of increase in population, further weakens the bargaining position of the consumers in the market. On the other hand,it offers opportunities to the providers of goods and services to exploit the situation in their favour. In the absence of an accessible low cost system of protection, the consumer is defenceless.

It is no wonder than that Karachi, one of the least expensive cities of the world, is also one of the worst places to be in terms of the quality of life as confirmed by a survey of the World Economic Forum.

The sad fact is that even many reputable international brands, tempted by the whooping profit margins, compromise on their quality. Naming names without actionable proof is ill-advised but the products of same brands in Karachi are often inferior to ones available in Dubai, Singapore or other markets of developed countries, with stringent consumer protection laws.

It was disturbing to find out that customers of Sindh province are in fact the most vulnerable of all customers in the country. The customers of the other three provinces have an option to proceed in a court of law for they enjoy the cover of Protection of Consumer Act. In NWFP,the law was enacted as early as in 1996. Balochistan Assembly enacted the law in 2003. Punjab joined in 2005 when the provincial assembly passed the Consumer Protection Bill. Punjab, the biggest province, moved fastest and has established consumer courts in 11 districts in early 2007.

These courts cover the whole province till the time the network of courts is expanded to all districts. According to press reports all eleven courts established in Lahore, Sahiwal, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Gujrat, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Bhawalpur, Sargodha and Faisalabad are already functional. Till end July, according to press reports these courts entertained 132 complaints against the quality of products and services. Of these 17 have been decided and 54 are under process. The remaining 61 have been referred to the respective courts.

Specifics of the enforced law are up to the legal fraternity to study and evaluate. Generally speaking consumer protection law is considered an area of public law that regulates private law relationship between individual consumer and businesses that sell goods and services. It covers wide range of topics including but not limited to product liability, privacy laws, unfair business practices, fraud, misrepresentation and other consumer/business interactions. These are regulations that protect interests of consumers. For example, a government may require business to disclose detailed information about products, particularly in areas where public health is an issue such as food items, medicines etc.

Dr Farooque Sattar, a leader of Mutehida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a partner in ruling coalition government in Sindh with a mass base in Karachi, confirmed to Dawn that consumer protection bill has been drafted but expired many times round as it was not tabled in the assembly. "The need to protect consumers from suppliers' excesses is there and MQM will move the bill in the assembly in a month or two" he said. He attributed delay in the passage to preoccupation of party with other pressing issues. He also mentioned lack of consensus over the draft bill amongst the stakeholders in Sindh.

"The corporate sector is very strong in Sindh and it colludes with the government to delay the passage of a people-friendly law that could be used to check bad practices in the market", Dr Javed of 'Subheno', an NGO involved in sustainable development projects, said. He was not too optimistic about the progress made in this regard in the other three provinces either.

"The prime motivation of the government is to qualify for assistance of Asian Development Bank under Access to Justice Programme", he remarked. He pointed out several lacunas in consumer laws enacted so far and added "It should have been a federal law in the first place as inter- province mobility is high.”

The consumer protection is linked to the concept of consumer rights. The United Nation has provided internationally accepted guidelines for consumer protection. The Consumer International, a global rights organisation created charter for consumer organisations. It adopted eight rights as their platform in 1985, which were adopted later by the UN Assembly. They provide framework for strengthening consumer protection policies. These are: safety, information, choice, representation, basic needs, redress, education and healthy environment.

In Pakistan, there are a few NGOs that lobby for consumer protection. They claim to have organised many programmes to sensitised the society and promote awareness about consumer rights. Better known NGOs in the area include: Consumer Protection Council, Consumer Association of Pakistan, Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan, Consumer Protection Network, Consumer Research Council and Subheno. Interviews with a few of their office- bearers revealed that they are doing their bit. They boast of resolving some cases of genuine complaints by individual consumers who approached them. However, they have yet to earn a credible public status as promoters of consumer interests.

There is not a single internationally accredited food and medicine laboratory to certify food and medicines standards. The main thrust of NGOs has so far been to encourage private consumers to launch a complaint against a company to give them a chance to pursue “the case for justice.”

Wrongly or rightly, there is also a perception that many of these NGOs work to appease dynamic customers into silence by out of court settlement with the corporates. Some NGOs are also accused of making money by blackmailing successful private businesses by threatening to launch a smear campaign against them.

Consumers have a long way to go to achieve their rights. Public awareness and public pressure have the power to curb unfair trade practices. People centric policies and not an ad hoc tactical approach can bring relief to the consumers.