October 14, 2004

Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) organized a round table meeting to celebrate the 35th world standards day. Each year World Standards day is celebrated internationally to pay tribute to the collaborative efforts of thousands of experts who produce voluntary agreements, which are published as International standards.

The Topic of the meeting was “Standards Connect the World”. Mr. Tariq Mehmood started the session by introducing the concepts and theme of World Standards Day. Dr. Muhammad Farooq, Director Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC), chaired the meeting. He said that they document certain procedures, which are in the best practices, and call them standards of things. And these standards have been in practice for a long time. But people are always afraid of them. These standards are not obligatory. These are voluntary standards and there are only 46 standards, which have been made mandatory only for the safety of people. He said that though there are constraints on the part of government as it lacks administrative and prosecuting infrastructure but consumer rights organizations could play important role in the awareness of consumers for the use of goods. The three major issues emphasized by him were that why people are very conscious about the standards? What role consumer rights organizations can play for the awareness of common people? And that all standards are not forced but are voluntarily adopted as a norm of good governance. He said that there are three types of standards, National standards, International standards, and regional standards and standards are important in a way that they ensure the quality and reliability of products and they are not only beneficial for the consumers but also for the producers and manufacturers. The compatibility of products relies on the said standards, which open the doors to the international market.
Mr Ahsan Rauf sheikh, Chief Coordinator of Pakistan National Accreditation council (PNAC) said that there is a need to strengthen the consumer production standards. He informed that a proposal has been sent to the cabinet for the approval of quality standards and it is under the consideration; he however lamented the indifferent attitude of the government to the legislation and policy formulation about the best indigenous standards for the multifarious protection of consumers.
Mr Mukhtar Ahmad Ali from CRCP stated that there are different standards such as product standards, which ensure safety, reliability and durability of products. Environmental standards, which ensure environmental protection and management standards comprising ISO Certification. These standards are very essential for connecting the world. The main factor, which plays a major role, is uniformity in products. He urged that the manufacturers should adopt these standards and the government bodies should give them priority.
Mr Mohsin khalid Ex-President ICCI described that standardization is a market driven process as well as customer oriented. According to him sometimes the manufacturers are forced not to adopt these standards. Lot of this standardization depends upon the local conditions, market situation, and attitude of people and general acceptance of a country’s environment, which cannot be ignored.
At the end of the meeting there was a question answer session. Participants from different organizations, NGOs, Government Institutions, Media, academia and from Commerce, discussed thought provoking aspects of the discourse of standardization and imperatives of WTO regime for developing countries.