Proposed additions: Industries Dept proposes six more consumer courts

The department’s Additional Secretary Muhammad Akhtar said that the proposal will be sent to the chief secretary within a week.

Currently, 11 consumer courts are working at Bahawalpur, DG Khan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Sahiwal and Sialkot. They became functional in March 2007. The summary prepared for the chief minister notes that since their inception till December 31, 2012, a total of 18,956 cases were filed in the consumer courts of which 16,827 were disposed of.

The Directorate of Provincial Consumer Protection Council (PCPC) had initially suggested that consumer courts be established in 12 more districts but the Industries Department had told the council that it did not have enough funds to do so, said a department official privy to the developments who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official said that the council had picked the six districts keeping in mind their distance from an already-functioning consumer court as well as their population.

Bhakkar that has a population of 1.3 million and is located at a distance of 290 kilometres (km) from Sargodha will get a consumer court as will Bahawalnagar, which is 170 km from Bahawalpur and has a population of almost 2.5 million.

New courts will also be set up at Mianwali and Rahim Yar Khan that are 200 km away from Sargodha and Bahawalpur with populations of 12 million and 4 million respectively. Layyah that is located 150 km from the court in DG Khan and has a population of 1.4 million, and Mandi Bahauddin which is 90 km from Gujrat and has a population of 1.3 million will also get new consumer courts. Akhtar said that initially the courts will be set up at rented buildings. The additional secretary estimated that the yearly cost for all six courts would come to about Rs300 million. This includes salaries of the employees, rent and other expenses.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2013.