The PSQCA Act, 1996 equips the Authority with the necessary powers to take all appropriate actions to ensure strict compliance with the standards it has evolved and adopted for thousand of products and processes so that consumers are empowered and their rights effectively protected. PSQCA is fully aware of its responsibility and it takes all necessary steps to serve the purpose of the Act in an effective manner.
Working under the Ministry of Science and Technology, PSQCA started its operation as a self-financing organisation on December 1, 2000. The Authority has three-fold responsibilities: (a) formulation of Pakistan Standards, (b) promulgation of Standards, and (c) advising the Government on standardisation policies, programmes and activities for promoting industrial efficiency and development as well as for consumer protection.
Assigned the important task of developing and strengthening the Quality Infrastructure of Pakistan, PSQCA has been taking all steps for promoting and popularising 'quality culture' in the country. Its commitment to quality and standards can be gauged from the fact that it adopted the statement of April 27, 1948 of the father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as its Vision. The Quaid had said: "I would like Pakistan to become a synonym and hallmark for standards and quality in the market-place of the world".
The Authority works through its four important components. Of these, Standards Development Centre (SDC) formulates National Standards while Quality Control Centre (QCC) is concerned with testing of industrial raw material and finished products for conformity assessment to national/international standards. Both these components were established by the Federal Ministry of Industries in 1951. The Authority's third component, Technical Services Centre (TSC), focuses on research and development on metal and metallurgical industrial products. It was established by the Federal Ministry of Industries in 1975.
All the policies and actions of PSQCA are aimed at ensuring protection of consumers. It makes every effort to care for all the eight basic consumers rights. The mandatory 78 items, whose producers and manufacturers are required to get registration with the Authority and print PSQCA logo as a sign of certification and quality, all are consumer items. These include food items, construction materials, mechanical engineering, chemical products and formulations, textiles, electrical and electronic goods and appliances, etc.
In order to protect the consumers' right to be informed - to be given the facts needed to make an informed choice, and to be protected against dishonest or misleading advertising and labelling - PSQCA has made it mandatory for the manufacturers and suppliers of these items to ensure that the packing/label of every product mentions every important details, includes date of manufacturing, date of expiry, ingredients, and price. All these details must be printed, not just stamped as is the prevalent practice in respect of a large number of items. Similarly, to protect consumers' right to safety - to be protected against products, production processes and services which are hazardous to health or life - and the right to a healthy environment - to live and work in an environment which is non-threatening to the well-being of present and future generations - the Authority carries out regular checks to ensure that factories provide and maintain healthy environment and working conditions.
With a view to ensure protection of consumers' right to education - to acquire knowledge and skills needed to make informed, confident choices about goods and services, while being aware of basic consumer rights and responsibilities and how to act on them - PSQCA carries out promotional activities such as seminars and seeks and obtains the co-operation of the print and electronic media for maximum coverage of its activities in this regard on a regular basis.
For stopping the unscrupulous elements from marketing and selling sub-standard products, it has been warning the concerned manufacturers and suppliers, through the media and otherwise, to get themselves registered with it and comply with the relevant quality standards. At the same time, it has been raiding various shopping malls, markets and stores to carry out on-the-spot checking of various items at its mobile laboratory. These raids would make selling of uncertified products difficult and would force those manufacturers and suppliers, who avoid registration and certification, to upgrade their products and get themselves registered with the Authority.
Being aware that in the global market-place, international co-operation and collaboration plays an important role, PSQCA has been collaborating with various prestigious international organisations in the fields of standardisation, quality assurance, product certification and exchange of technical information and capacity building. It is a member of International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), International Electro-technical Commission (IEC), and International Organisation of Legal Metrology (OIML). It is also member of World-wide System for Conformity Testing and Certification of Electromechanical Equipment and Components (IECEE). The Authority serves as Focal point for national, regional and international organisations and institutions such as ISO, IEC, Codex Alimentarius and WTO, and as National Enquiry Point (NEP) for WTO Agreement on Technical Barrier to Trade (TBT).PSQCA represents as Pakistan as its National Standards Body at various platforms world-wide. Recently a high-level World Bank team visited PSQCA to assess improvement in the Thermally Efficient Gas Appliances in the country. On the occasion PSQCA and World Bank agreed to sign a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA). The agreement covers mutually agreed field of close co-operation such as standardisation, conformity assessment, mutual recognition of laboratories/certification, etc. The Authority requested the World Bank representatives to provide it necessary technical assistance in respect of training and laboratory equipment. PSQCA's relentless efforts has led to an ever increasing co-operation from the local manufacturers, producers, suppliers and traders who are now turning up in good numbers to get registration with the Authority and get their products certified. The media too has been very cooperative in giving wide coverage to the Authority's field operations focusing on carrying out raids on stores, shopping malls, etc to seize uncertified products and items and thus protect consumers' rights.
List 1
Option 2
List of Mandatory Items
S Subject
1 AC Watt hour meters
2 Asbestos Cement Building and Sanitary Pipes
3 Asbestos Cement Corrugated for roofing & cladding
4 Asbestos Cement pipe fitting for building and sanitary purposes
5 Asbestos Cement pressure pipes
6 Asbestos Flat Sheets
7 Apple Juice
8 Balanced Feed Mixture for Live Stock
9 Ballast for Tubular Fluorescent Lamp - Performance Requirements
10 Banaspati
11 Biscuits (Excluding Wafer Biscuits)
12 Butter
13 Carbonated Beverages
14 Bottled Drinking Water
15 Cold Worked Steel Deformed Bars for the Reinforcement of Concrete
16 Cooking Oil (Blended)
17 Cotton Seed Oil Cake Expeller Type
18 Chilly Powder
19 Concentrated Fruit Juice
20 Condensed Milk
21 Curry Powder
22 Deformed & Plain Billet Steel Bars
23 Discharge Lamps/Compact Flourescent Lamps (H.S.Code 8539,3200,8539,3910 & 8539, 3990)
24 Edible Sesame Seed Oil
25 Food for Infants and Children
26 Flavoured Milk
27 Fruit Squash
28 Gas Appliances-General Requirements
29 Gas Applied fired Room Heater-Vented
30 Gas Cooking Range
31 Gas Cooking Stoves
32 Gas Fired Radiant Room Heaters un-vented & semi-vented type
33 Gas Water Heaters
34 Honey
35 Iodized Salt
36 Jams ( Fruit preserve ) & Jellies
37 Lead Acid Batteries (for Motorcycles)
38 Lead Acid Starter Batteries (for motorcar)
39 Margarine
40 Mayonnaise
41 Marmalade
42 Milk Powder (whole and Skim)
43 Methods for measuring the performance of electric kettles, jugs for house holds and similar purposes
44 Methods for measuring the performance of Electric Toasters for house hold and similar purposes
45 Mild Steel Bars
46 Mild Steel Oil Pressure Utility Stoves
47 Natural Mineral Water
48 Non-Pressure Oil Stoves
49 Oil Pressure Stoves Brass Type
50 Orange Juice
51 Palm oil (Edible grade for cooking purposes)
52 Pickets
53 Polypropylene Woven Sacks for Packing (Sugar)
54 Portland Blast Furnace Cement not Exceeding 65% blast furnace slag
55 Portland Cement
56 Poultry Feeds
57 PVC Insulated Cables (Non Armoured) for Electric Power & Lighting
58 PVC Pressure Pipes for Cold Potable Water
59 Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engine
60 Refined Coconut Oil
61 Refined Cotton Seed Oil
62 Refined Maize Corn Oil
63 Refined Mustard Oil
64 Refined Soya bean Oil
65 Refined Sunflower Oil
66 Refine Sugar & White Sugar
67 Safety Razor Blades (double edge)
68 Single & Twin Blade Plastic bounded Disposable Razors/p>
69 Sulphate Resisting Portland Cement
70 Synthetic Vinegar
71 Tea Black
72 Three Wheeler Auto Vehicles
73 Tubular Fluorescent Lamp
74 Tungsten Flaments Lamps for General Services
75 Induction Motors
76 Two Wheeler Auto Vehicles
77 Wafers Biscuits
List 2
Option 2
Eight basic consumer rights
-- The right to satisfaction of basic needs
-- The right to safety
-- The right to be informed
-- The right to choose
-- The right to be heard
-- The right to redress
-- The right to consumer education
-- The right to a healthy environment.
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