ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has far neither devised manufacturing standards nor established any organisation/department under the umbrella of government to check and assure the quality/standard in the manufacturing of automobiles, despite its revenue generation capacity in billions of rupees.
Ironically, automotive industry of the country is free to set own standards of manufacturing as there is no organisation/department under the umbrella of government that can check and assure the quality/standard in the manufacturing of automobiles while there are also no manufacturing standards for automobiles enforceable in Pakistan. And, due to no strict check on the automotive industry from the government, the innocent people despite paying sky-high prices of cars, vehicles, etc are at the mercy of automotive industry manufacturers who have allegedly compromised the modern day safety standards of vehicles only to gain maximum profits from the their business for a long time.
Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) does not have the technical facility, while Engineering Development Board (EDB), Ministry of Industries and Production does not have lab infrastructure to check conformance to quality as it (EDB) only deals with the provision of manufacturing certificate to car manufacturers under relevant SROs as such conformance to quality/standards does not fall under its mandate. And, due to no strict check, the automotive industry is found involved in unfair trial trade practices.
These revelations were made before a district court where a consumer filed complaint under Islamabad Consumer Protection Act, 1995 against Indus Motor Company Limited etc over the humming noise from the driver’s door of his newly purchased car model Toyota Corolla Altis 1.8 automatic.
On finding violations of Section 2 of Islamabad Consumer Protection Act, 1995 during the hearing of said complaint of the consumer, the honourable court has ordered Indus Motor Company Limited etc to replace the car with the current model of the same vehicle and pay fine of Rs 40,000 and Rs 100,000 in litigation expenses. The Additional District Judge Sayyed Faizan Haider took this historic decision over the application of Islamabad-based Ammar Sehri.
Official sources in the ministry of industries & production said the improvement in the security situation throughout the country coupled with a low interest and financing rates have pushed up the sales of local automobile companies to record levels in the financial year of 2016-17 and reached 185,781 units. They said the sales broke the record of the previous years’ numbers of 181, 145 units and also broke the six years old record of 164,650 units set in 2008-07.
“The outgoing financial year is the most impressive in the history of the automobile industry in Pakistan having witnessed an incredible demand for local cars by the public outpacing the production capacity of different companies,” said sources.
According to the statistics issued by Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA), regarding production and sale, total production of cars was 54,873, while sale remained at 50,640 cars from July 16 till September 17 of the on-going year. The statistics also reveal that the production of passenger cars of 1300 and above cc from July 16 till September 17 was 24,440 while sale remained at 24,343, while the production of cars with 1,000CC was 13,007 and sale stood at 10,970 and the production of cars with 800 cc and below recorded at 17,426 and sale registered 15,370 cars during the said period of current year.
Similarly, as per the PAMA, the sale & the production figures of trucks disclosed that total 2,452 trucks were produced and 2,230 trucks were sold from July 16 to September 17, 2017.Likewise, a total of 2,746 buses were produced and 2,446 buses were sold, while production of LCVs, Vans, Jeeps (4×4) was 2,769 and sales were 2,863 during the said period. Moreover, 7,176 pickups were produced and 6,966 were sold. Furthermore, total 15,618 farm tractors were produced and 15,710 were sold. Last but not the least, total 466,168 motorcycles and three-wheelers were produced while sales remained at 468,507 in the said period.
It is worth mentioning here that road accidents in Pakistan have taken a horrible toll in the last 10 years as 15 to 20 people are killed daily in road and traffic accidents in the country. An annual report of National Highways and Motorway Police (NH&MP) for the year 2016-17 reveals that total 1333 accidents were registered in the year 2015-16, while 321 in 2016-17. Similarly, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), total 9100 traffic accidents registered in the year 2015-16 where 4448 persons killed, 11544 injured and a total number of 10636 vehicles were involved in them. Out of 9100 traffic accidents recorded in the year 2015-16, 3591 accidents were fatal while 5509 accidents were of a non-fatal category.
