THIS refers to a very important issue raised by Dr Jawed Hassan in his letter ‘New govt plan to conserve electricity’ (April 5). The writer has mentioned the unplanned and dangerous manner in which the government is trying to restrict sales of goods to only Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority-certified items.

He writes that there is rampant corruption in the PSQCA which lacks technical and professional staff and is thus simply not equipped to carry out this task at the national level.

He accurately pinpoints the reasons for this lack of capability on a historic lack of focus on scientific education and the low calibre of our bureaucracy.

Like Dr Hassan, I am all for the introduction of a better quality of goods to the Pakistani consumer but I agree that the way it is being done will not achieve this objective. It will rather add another layer of corruption and expense to the cost of producing goods. From the perspective of manufacturers and investors I would like to say what the PSQCA’s incompetence and corruption mean.

The PSQCA is quite happy to send out letters to businesses warning them that they must comply with set standards. It also insists on levying a certification fee based on the value of goods sold and threatens all sorts of other inconveniences similar to a taxing authority.

What the PSQCA does not offer is any recognition of a product’s conformity with an internationally-accepted standard. Many progressive manufacturers do base their products on international standards. The PSQCA does not provide the network of world-class testing and research facilities to help locally manufactured products reach a better benchmark; or indeed an understanding of the materials and processes involved in any manufacturing activity.

Therefore, the PSQCA is not in a position to better the quality of the product manufactured but it is simply a rubber-stamp organisation with a high nuisance value and cost.

The working of the organisation can be improved but like everything else it would need a serious dialogue between the government and stakeholders, i.e., business and consumers, to evolve a system which can be based on models existing elsewhere. To have a bureaucratic and red-tape-driven approach, as is being done at the moment, is simply bad governance and quite inexcusable at a time when the economy is in bad shape.

FARHANA MOWJEE Karachi