Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority's (PSQCA) inefficient lab testing mechanism has created doubts about its performance among consumers, it was learnt on Thursday. Although the authority has claimed to have launched special campaigns to make better implementation of quality standards in the country, its performance was far behind in ensuring quality benchmark for protecting health and safety of consumers owing to its ineffective lab testing mechanism and irregularities, sources said.
"The PSQCA's team lifts un-registered items from open market during raids from local markets to monitor quality assurance of the PSQCA's licensees, but majority of test reports are not shared with consumers for unexplained reasons," the sources claimed, saying the authority's officials often remain reluctant on being asked to share the results and, as such, their indifferent attitude usually create doubts about its performance vis-à-vis health and safety assurance.
"It seems as if there is something wrong" remarked a representative of consumers. The sources said that in the absence of proper implementation of consumer protection act and consumers' courts in Sindh, a number of sub-standard products were being manufactured, imported and supplied in the market. "In fact, a number of fake and sub-standard products being imported from different countries have been flooded in the local market," the sources said, suggesting that the PSQCA should develop its inspection set-ups across the country, especially at sea ports.
The PSQCA is responsible for issuing conformity certifications for goods at import stages, declaring that such products met the authority's standards, the sources said, adding that "normally the importers take samples of their imported goods to the PSQCA for getting the mandatory certification.
They opined that there should be a separate setup of PSQCA at sea ports to examine all products at their import stages without and delay. "Once the imported goods are distributed in markets across the country, it becomes a Herculean task for the authority to find out the sub-standard goods through surveys," they added.
PSQCA is responsible to insure quality of some 78 mandatory products which include apple juice, balanced feed mixture for livestock, vanaspati ghee, butter, carbonated beverages, chilly powder, concentrated fruit juices, condensed milk, curry powder, edible sesame seed oil, infants and children food, flavoured milk, fruit squashes, honey, iodized salt, jams and jellies, margarine, mayonnaise, marmalade, milk powder (whole and skimmed), natural mineral water, orange juice, pickles, poultry feeds, refined coconut oil, refined cotton seed oil, refined maize corn oil, refined mustard oil, refined soya bean oil, refined sunflower oil, refined sugar and white sugar, synthetic vinegar, black tea, and bottled drinking water, etc.
However the PSQCA's director Quality Control, Shabbir Quraishi, said there is an effective lab testing mechanism in PSQCA, and it issues reports to the importer concerned after proper lab test of samples. "It has been an international practice that laboratories are only responsible for the authenticity of samples which are tested not for whole quantity of products," he added. The reports of product sample are brought to the laboratory for assessment purpose, he said, adding that the reports are issued to the party concerned.