Muhammad Khalid Siddiq, Director General, Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry to listen to the issues being faced by the retailers due to PSQCA raids and agreed to form Committees to address highlighted issues and for ensuring compliance of standards and quality of products.
He said PSQCA never wanted to create any kind of harassment in the business community and its only purpose was to ensure compliance of standards and quality that would benefit the business community as well as the general consumers. He said Supreme Court of Pakistan has instructed PSQCA to make Islamabad a model city in terms of standards and quality of products and business community should cooperate with it in achieving these objectives.
He said business community should form a foolproof mechanism to ensure sale of only licensed products that would also help PSQCA in achieving its goals. He said sub-standard products were not in the interest of manufacturers/retailers and the consumers, therefore, business community should discourage supply of such products. He said PSQCA has developed a mobile application to provided list of licensed products that could be downloaded on mobile phone.
It was agreed that two committees would be formed comprising representatives of PSQCA and business community. One Committee would work with manufacturers and the other with retailers to ensure availability and sale of licensed products at retail outlets. It was further agreed that PSQCA in collaboration with ICCI would hold awareness seminars to educate the business community about the importance of standards and quality.
Speaking at the occasion, Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that many well-known retailers had worked hard for decades to establish their brand name, but sudden raids of PSQCA were damaging their reputation and image, which was not a right approach. He said business community also wanted high standard and good quality products at its outlets, however, it needed more time to ensure supply and sale of licensed products. He stressed that instead of conducting raids on outlets, matters should be resolved through negotiations that would also help in compliance of quality standards.
Muhammad Naveed, Senior Vice President and Nisar Ahmed Mirza Vice President ICCI said that Chamber would fully cooperate with PSQCA for compliance of standards and quality, but coercive measures should be avoided. Zafar Bakhtawari, Ejaz Abbasi, Atif Ikram Sheikh, Khalid Chaudhry, Muhammad Hussain and others also spoke at the occasion and called upon PSQCA to address the concerns of retailers.
