Daily Times

Sir: I bought a refrigerator from a reputable company, from another reputable department store on August 20, 2018. The product was faulty from day one. After I had called the company’s complaint department, I received a message over a month later saying that a technician would attend to my complaint within 24 hours. Despite constant calls to his highness the technician, as well as the complaint centre, I did not receive a response till a few days ago.

In the “ugly” West, such cases of sale of fraudulent products and negligent or neglectful post-purchase `service’ are severely penalized (under law of tort and crime). Consumer-protection groups take care that production dinosaurs do not go scot free. There is no Ralph Nader in Pakistan to establish a consumer — protection advocacy group. Nader’s efforts in USA led volunteer law students to spearhead `Nader raiders’, `Public Interest Research Group’, and `Public Citizen’. These associations led to groundbreaking investigation and overhaul of the US Federal Trade Commission. To satisfy the groups, the US government was forced to enact several landmark pieces of American consumer-protection laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Freedom of Information Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the Whistleblower Protection Act. In Pakistan, hapless citizens like me could only pray for divine relief as there is no earthly help.

AMJED JAAVED

Rawalpindi

Published in Daily Times, September 20^th 2018.