Proposed consumer protection law: Sindh government ordered to submit current status of summary

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday directed the provincial law officer to apprise it of the current status of a summary regarding proposed consumer protection law that was stated to have been sent to the Sindh Chief Minister for his consent. A division bench gave this direction while hearing a petition of Rana Faizul Hassan, representing the NGO, United Human Rights Commission, through which he sought legislation on the consumer protection.
The petitioner had stated that the Sindh provincial government had failed to enact legislation on the consumer protection that caused exploitation of consumers in urban and rural areas of Sindh where they were being cheated by traders and businessmen. He submitted that the Punjab province had passed a law in this regard and district co-ordination officers were authorised to take immediate action against retailers if found involved in selling goods in exorbitant prices, but such a law did not exist in the Sindh province.
He said that consumer protection laws had been enacted in all provinces except Sindh, and pleaded to the court to direct the Sindh provincial government to make legislation in order to provide protection to citizens against exorbitant prices and substandard commodities.
On Wednesday, the petitioner said earlier the Sindh law officer had told the court that a summary regarding consumer protection law was sent to the chief minister for approval and the proposed Consumer Protection Bill was likely to be tabled in the provincial Sindh Assembly in near future but despite passage of significant time, the Sindh government had failed to do so. The court directed the Sindh law officer to submit a report about the current status of the proposed legislation on consumer protection.