KARACHI, Sept 7: As a consumer rights body looks towards the government for empowerment to enable it to play an effective role in Ramazan, when the prices of household and edible items are hovering at record highs, the authorities believe its mandate has been terminated as the ordinance which set up the body, promulgated by the Sindh governor, has already expired without the provincial assembly granting legal cover to the entity.

Senior officials at the Consumer Rights Council (CRC) agreed that their role at a time when inflation has sent prices skyrocketing while the quality of products continues to nosedive, was needed more than ever, but said they required proper legislative cover from the provincial government to protect consumer rights.

However, the Sindh government sounded uninterested in raising this issue in the assembly, as a senior official concerned said that as the ordinance which gave birth to the CRC had already expired, the council was no more effective.

“The CRC issue needs to be taken up by the provincial assembly to give it proper legal cover,” said one of the 11 members of the council. “But unfortunately, despite several requests the issue has not been taken up by the assembly. So we are in a very tricky situation as on one hand we are expected to deliver both by the consumers and the authorities, but on the other we don’t have any regulatory powers for the required actions.”

Established more than a year ago, he said the CRC had managed to set up a few complaint centres in a couple of towns of the city while the number of complaints registered at these centres remains untraced and even if they are compiled, they could not be processed due to the lack of any court for the protection of consumer rights.

The Sindh governor promulgated the Sindh Consumer Protection Ordinance, 2007, last February to establish the CRC. However, without proper legal cover, it cannot set up consumer courts to take up complaints.

“If any businessman, company, firm, person, manufacturer or trader, supplies or attempts to supply any defective goods or deficient services or practices; or attempts any unfair trade practices; or makes or attempts to make any false or misleading representation or violates any provision of this ordinance, such businessman, company, firm, person, manufacturer or trader shall be liable to pay compensation to the complainant as the consumer tribunal may direct,” states the ordinance.

Interestingly, when a senior official in the Sindh cabinet was approached to comment on the CRC issue, he seemed uninterested in activating the council and instead came up with the explanation that the existing provisions in the law were quite enough to protect consumer rights.

“There are several other ordinances too, which are no more valid and have expired without being converted into law through the assembly. Honestly speaking, there are already several forums, institutions and departments working under the provincial and city governments for consumer rights protection and there is no need of parallel bodies for the same task.”

He said the CRC was not meant to get punitive powers, as it was supposed to work as a pressure group for awareness among the consumers and keep the relevant government departments informed about the market forces and irregularities.

“Even when the body (CRC) was in place, it could have done surveys of the retail markets and interacted with the consumers and come up with reports for the departments concerned for punitive action. Each and every body can’t be allowed to get magisterial powers when there are already several departments operating under the provincial and city governments,” he added.