The woman petitioner, who moved a consumer court in Karachi against a superstore for not displaying price list, must be hailed for her consumer activism. On her petition, the judge directed the Sindh agricultural secretary, the supply and prices department and the District East deputy commissioner to ensure that the price lists are displayed in shops and superstores in the District East of Karachi in compliance with Section 18 of the Sindh Consumer Protection Act, 2014. The petitioner had to pay Rs100 more for an item to the superstore in question from other shops. Many would ignore such a negligible price difference, but penny after penny overcharged throughout the day takes the tally to hundreds of thousands, all because of consumers’ disregard to price differences.
Consumer rights issues are far from being the top area of interest in our part of the world. Civil society seldom shows activism in the interest of consumers, despite the fact that every one of us is a consumer in one way or another. Media houses lack consumer watchdog beat, and for this reason, very few news items make to pages or hit airwaves. The government has no dedicated ministry or department to safeguard the interests of consumers. Come Ramazan, and government functionaries wake up to price mechanism. Magistrates are then fielded to markets, who after summary hearing, fine small time shopkeepers.
The government under retired Gen Pervez Musharraf introduced consumer courts but they could not make much impact for they were set up at divisional headquarters. Their effectiveness was eroded when the Shehbaz Sharif’s Punjab government introduced authorities like the food authority, education authority and health authority. Had the public at large been made aware about their rights as consumers and courts at tehsil level established, this could have been a game-changer.
Consumer rights are not about fair price mechanism alone. They are about the provision of fair services, healthy and clean products, and access to information about the items being sold and so on. In the Karachi consumer case, the judge has punished the owner of the superstore under Section 33(1) of the Sindh Consumer Rights Act, 2014, ordering them to pay a Rs30,000 fine for not displaying the price list and overcharging the buyer. The defendant will pay Rs10,000 in damages to the complainant for causing her mental agony and anguish and also pay Rs7,000 as cost of litigation to the complainant.
The punishment is not rigorous to the profit-making shops. Authorities needs to increase punitive measures to stop the exploitation of consumers. They have already overpaid the price for being a consumer in this society. *