Rights of the consumer

For more than a decade consumer protection legislation in the Sindh Assembly has languished and allowed to lapse. Now, after what seems like an interminable wait, the legislation has finally been approved. On paper it seems like a model law, offering citizens protection against unsavoury business practices. All companies will be required to display the price, expiry date and other relevant details about their products. They will be banned from exploitative and misleading advertising campaigns and, most important of all, consumer courts will be set up so that those affected can seek redress in a court of law. Consumer protection councils will be set up to ensure compliance with the law. They will need to take input from consumer protection associations and will have the power to remove from shelves items that are not up to par. We have all heard horror stories about restaurants with non-existent hygienic standards, food items with all kinds of impurities and gadgets that do not work as intended. Such matters will now no longer need to be dealt with between individuals; the government can step in and ensure that consumers aren’t fleeced. This should be an historic step forward in correcting the power balance between all-powerful corporations and the customers they routinely fleece.
There is one major caveat which applies to all laws trying to protect the public. The legislation will not be worth the paper it is written on if it is not backed up by rigorous implementation. Regulatory agencies have an ugly tendency to be in bed with the very forces they are meant to police. Thus we have environmental agencies being part of the timber mafia and building code authorities working for the building mafia. Rules and regulations are repeatedly ignored in the face of political pressure and bribery. The new law could become another tool for police and regulators to make more money. Too many of our politicians are enmeshed in the corporate world, either as owners or by being reliant on the rich for patronage. Thus the consumer protection councils will have to be immune to political pressure and corruption. Should they turn out to be as crooked as other agencies the consumer courts should be expected to take them to task and relieve officers of their duties. This legislation, unprecedented as it is, is only the first necessary step in a long battle to ensure the rights of the consumer are respected.