46 items on PSQCA list

Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), set up by the government in the year 2000, has geared up its efforts to bring maximum number of companies into its net for registration and certification of their products as per quality standards.
"PSQCA has issued a number of warnings to the companies involved in manufacture and marketing of substandard products and we have started getting results," the Director General of PSQCA Muhammad Ali Damani, said this while speaking in 'Bil Mushafa' programme of Radio Pakistan, Karachi, broadcast on Sunday.
Since the law provides for imposing fine of up to Rs 50,000 and imprisonment of one year for manufacture and sale of substandard goods, the PSQCA has also registered cases and currently 13 companies were being prosecuted, he said.
To a question Damani said the PSQCA has 46 items on its list including ghee, cooking oil, biscuits and bottled water to monitor their quality.
"The list of these items is given by the government and when the companies producing these items apply for the certification, PSQCA teams visit their factories, examine all the aspects and carry out tests of their products and issue the license if satisfied," he said adding that periodical test of the products is also conducted taking samples from factories and the market.
Currently the authority has constituted a committee consisting of representatives of city district government Karachi, department of industries and consumer council that would carry out checking of different commodities being sold in the market.
The committee would take the samples for testing at the laboratory to ascertain their quality, he said. To a query he said that the names of substandard goods and their manufacturers would be publicised through the press to let the people know about such hazardous products.
To another question he said the number of registered companies producing and marketing certified products was in thousands yet there were innumerable companies engaged in manufacture of spurious products." He said in many cases when the PSQCA teams conducted raids at the addresses given on the products they found that even the addresses were fake."
He revealed that the colours being sold in the market for use in the food were in fact textile colours and harmful for the human being but since food colours or many other food items were not among the list provided to PSQCA. So that no action could be taken against it by PSQCA.
It is the responsibility of city and district government to take action in such cases of adulteration, he viewed. He said recently a Consumer Council (CC) has been constituted in Sindh of which PSQCA is a member. This council would keep check on the standards and quality of consumer goods and also act on public complaints.
Muhammad Ali Damani said that federal government has approved Rs 225 million for four projects of PSQCA including setting up of two modern laboratories at Karachi and one at Lahore. Moreover, a new office and laboratory building is under construction at a cost of Rs 95 million in Gulistan-e-Johar, Karachi.