Speakers at a seminar on "Combating Counterfeiting" have urged the new government to amend the laws of quality control and take serious action against the culprits involved in counterfeiting of different products particularly food and medicines aimed at protecting the legal businesses and generate more revenue.
Speakers, representing food, beverages and pharmaceutical industry, as well as government agencies including Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) at the seminar organised by the Helpline Trust at a local hotel, said that counterfeit food and medicines were not only a serious health hazard, but also making billion of rupees revenue losses to the national exchequer.
They said that there were strict laws in the developed countries to combat counterfeiting and even police take action against the counterfeit products, while in Pakistan it was consider a low risk with high returns business due to complicated legal requirements.
Counterfeiting is violation of intellectual property rights and also tarnish the image of Pakistan on international front, they added. Former Justice Majida Razvi, Trustee of Helpline Trust and the Law Foundation, chaired the seminar and asked for strict Consumer Protection Law to combat counterfeiting and provide protection to industry as well as consumers.
She said that absence of specific laws, special courts and delay in justice were hampering efforts to curb the spread of substandard and counterfeit goods in the country. "A strict and forceful enforcement of existing laws is needed to control the proliferation of counterfeit products which put human lives at risk," she added.
Anwar Qureshi Assistant Director FIA, in his keynote address, briefed about the actions taken so far by the agency against unscrupulous manufacturers. He also admitted that the capacity and resources of the agency needed to be strengthened to combat counterfeiting in the country. He said that agency its self have taken several actions against culprit involved in counterfeiting, however manufacturers and domestic industry don't want to become a party in the any case.
He said that despite having a mandate to counter fake products and the agency was also facing difficulties in carrying out inspections, inquiries and registration of cases against criminals and profiteers, who are playing with the lives of consumers. Qureshi said that even for a raid against fake medicine agency need a drug inspector, which generally avoided helping them due to unknown reasons. He said that there were many reasons due to which FIA could not effectively handle the consumer-related cases.
Hamid Maker, Founder Trustee, Helpline Trust, in his opening remarks said that counterfeit products were produced with primary objective to cut costs, ignoring quality, safety or cleanliness and cheat the consumers.
"This has also tarnished our image in the international community and has had a negative effect on the investment climate. According to a recent survey, the government is loosing billions of rupees revenue every year, in the form of taxes, excise duties, etc, as most of these manufacturers of spurious and counterfeit products are not registered and being sold without paying any tax," he informed.
On the occasion a presentations on fake/counterfeit medicine was also made by Ayesha Tammy Haq, Executive Director of Pharma Bureau. While Muhammad Azam Shakeel, Manager Legal and Corporate Affairs EBM (Pvt) Limited shared his experiences. On the occasion Dr Sheikh Kaiser Waheed of Medisure Laboratories, Atif Ahmed of BDM Ultracoat Pakistan and Shabbir Ahmed Qureshi Director CA (South) PSQCA also spoke.
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