After nine years of the drafting of consumer protection laws, Punjab government has finally decided to present the bill before the provincial assembly which provides the establishment of Consumer Protection Court and Consumer Councils all over the province. The main mandate of the councils is to provide effective framework to deal with unethical practices of producers and merchants guilty of providing substandard goods and services and to curb hoarding.

Commenting on the proposed Act, for which CRCP has been striving for a long time, said that it is a welcome step but still needs some amendments in the formation and composition of Consumer Councils and the prescribed procedures for processing consumer complaints.

In the proposed Act only two representative of Consumers are included against the seven official member in the Provincial, Divisional and District Consumer Protection Councils. Even there selection is subject to finalization by the Chairman of the Council, which is District Magistrate. It is an obvious under representation of the most important stakeholders against seven official member.

CRCP has demanded that two third or at least half of the membership of the councils should be constituted by the representative of the Consumer Organizations and the selections of the representatives should be the prerogative of consumer organizations.

CRCP further added that the jurisdiction of Consumer courts and councils needs rethinking and some sections like section 4 demands further elaboration of various procedures. CRCP stressed that the whole initiative would be in jeopardy if these observations and suggestions are not included in the Act.

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