Consumer Rights in Pakistan: Waking from their Slumber?

Although consumer protection legislation has been in existence for quite some time in Pakistan, both in the Islamabad Capital Territory and the province of Punjab, the establishment of Consumer Courts and their mobilization have been slow on the uptake. More recently though, there has been a spate of news relating to decisions of Consumer Courts given in favour of consumers, ranging from cases against sale of defective goods, against a mobile phone vendor for misrepresenting to the client about the make of the mobile phone and issuing notices to a foreign airline and local travel agent for apparently providing misleading information to a client.

The regulatory authorities are also stepping up their game, with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announcing today that they intend to set up a consumer protection cell which will resolve customer complaints against overcharging by service providers and similar complaints against hidden charges. I suspect this move is due in part to the finding of the Federal Ombudsman of Pakistan--my former employer--who determined that the advertising of the Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (now managed by Etisalat) was misleading and failed to reveal hidden costs. The Government of Punjab is also in the process of setting up a Consumer Affairs Department, which will have a broad mandate covering quality of goods and price control to consumer education on their rights.

While this upsurge of activity on consumer rights is welcome, Pakistan still has a long way to go in adequately protecting its citizens from breaches of contractual obligations, irresponsible and questionable corporate practices related to retailing and poor customer service. For one thing, there is a fairly convoluted legal landscape replete with overlapping jurisdictions; second, the consumer rights related legislation is currently restricted only to Islamabad (the capital city territory) and to province of Punjab (and here too there are only 11 courts); third, even where consumer courts do exists, enforcement has always typically been a challenge; and lastly, the level of public awareness about their rights and responsibilities as a consumer, is low bordering on the negligible. Still, these recent events are a step in the right direction and perhaps a pointer to the civil society and consumer rights advocacy organisations such as the Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Consumer Association of Pakistan, the Helpline Trust and the Network for Consumer Protection in Pakistan to up the ante in terms of building consumer voice.