ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: Accusing the country of being one of the leading producers of pirated optical discs of copyright material, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has asked the United States to suspend benefits to Pakistan under the generalized system of preferences (GSPs).

“If requisite improvements are not made by Pakistan to remedy the deficiencies noted in the IIPA’s petition, which have adversely affected US copyright owners, Pakistan’s GSP benefits should be suspended or withdrawn in whole or in part,” said the IIPA’s ‘2003 special 301 report’.

The IIPA recommended to the US trade representative that Pakistan be placed on the ‘priority watch list’, because it had emerged as one of the world’s leading producers of pirated CDs, DVDs, VCDs and CD-ROMs of music, audio-visual, business software, videogames and reference software.

It said the government had taken no steps to curtail the production of such material.

It has also filed a petition with the US government to evaluate whether Pakistan continues to qualify for benefits under the GSP programme.

The alliance alleged that eight companies operated optical disc production lines in five factory locations and based on import of raw material, the production may had risen to as high as 66 million discs per year. It said the legitimate domestic demand was roughly seven million discs.

It said the country’s own industry suffered a loss of $116 million during 2002 and $124 million in 2001.

Pakistan has been asked to pass and implement an effective law to enable licensing and control over optical disc production.