"World Standards Day" is celebrated internationally each year on 14th October. The PSQCA joins hands with the International Community in celebrating the day in recognition of the selfless efforts of hundreds of thousands of experts who contributes towards development of standards within International standards development organisations such as ISO, IEC, OIML and ITU and their own countries under the National Standards Bodies.
The day not only raises the awareness with regard to standardisation among regulators, industry and consumers but at the same time sensitises the regulators and consumers participate in bringing improvements through positive criticism.
The date 14th October was chosen in 1946 at the conference attended by technical experts/delegates from 25 countries. It was however in 1970 that the World Standards Day was formally celebrated the first time.
On the Day around the world, various activities such as Seminars/ Conferences/ Essay Competitions / Awards giving to Technical experts / Awareness raising through print as well as Electronic Media takes place. Keeping the pace with the International Community, the PSQCA, on behalf of Federal Government has undertaken to celebrate such activities to show the commitment dedication and importance attached to this cause.
This year's theme as given by ISO "Standards Build Trust" calls for assuring of an inbuilt comprehensively designed fool proof processes through which a product or a service has to undergo through conforming to an international standard permeated with a trusted symbol of quality, safety and compatibility. The PSQCA is proactively undertaking initiatives to motivate the manufacturing and services sector of Pakistan to adopt and maintain their process that may bring a Quality name to the country. Reliability and trust constitutes the fundamental ingredients of any business process for the manufacturing as well as service sector PSQCA, being the sole National Standards Body at the federal level is committed to serve its mandated role and promote quality culture in the country. It is mandatory that the products and services originating from Pakistan must demonstrably meet the quality and technical regulatory requirements both for the national and international markets.
Standards speak to the diversity of our interconnected world, introducing uniformity at the interfaces. Without standardisation, communication and collaboration at international level would be extremely challenging. In a world devoid of standards, performing most of the activities would be more complicated or nearly impossible. Standards not only facilitate in provision of better collaborative models but also help expedite business worldwide to enhance trade operations. The adherence to standards therefore is a must.
The Administrative Ministry ie Ministry of Science & Technology (MoST) cognisant of the significance and importance of the standards has already formulated the National Quality Policy (NQP) document and submitted for consideration and approval of the Cabinet. Through this national quality policy, a technical regulation framework that will be established that will meet all Pakistan's obligations in terms of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, and it will also be structured in a way that is acceptable to the country's main trading partners.