CCLC approves proposed safety standards of vehicles

ISLAMABAD: For the first time in Pakistan’s history, major stakeholders of the automotive sector have agreed to develop a consensus over the safety standards of some components of the locally assembled vehicles. The Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases (CCLC) on Friday approved the proposed safety standards.

According to reliable sources, CCLC, which met here on Friday, has discussed and approved the agenda item of safety standards in vehicles including Electric Vehicles (EVs) which would now be sent to the federal cabinet for ratification.

As per an official source, the committee discussed a list of standards of various parts, developed by Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) in consultation with all stakeholders, which included the manufacturers/assemblers, parts manufacturers, Engineering Development Board (EDB) an arm of Ministry of Industries, Ministry of Climate Change and others. Earlier there have been differences among the stakeholders over the safety standards being developed by PSQCA, an organization of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

As per documents exclusively available with this scribe, the PSQCA, in the first phase has developed a standard of at least eight items out of around 30 parts which needed to be developed under an international agreement signed by Pakistan.

The safety standards developed so far are almost the same as are approved internationally, an official informed.

During the meeting the members of the committee also asked PSQCA and other stakeholders to develop standards for remaining parts of the vehicles in other phases, sources informed.

According to available documents, in the first phase, PSQCA developed / adopted the standards for Child Restraint System (PS:5574 and PS:5575), Safety Belts (PS:5578 and PS:5579), Air Bags  (PS:5576), Electric PowerTrain for electric vehicles (PS:5550 and PS:5551) and Helmet for Riders (PS:1402)

As per the draft proposal, the CCLC has been requested to approve inclusion of the proposed standard (quality) in the mandatory items of PSQCA, which already has 166 food and nonfood items in its basket to inspect and certify.

The safety standards were being developed for the first time in the country after strong direction by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which on June 15, 2022 had expressed serious concern on lack of safety features in automobile such as Airbags, Safety Belts, Child Restrain Lock System, Helmets and others.

The Chairman of the PAC had directed the concerned department and ministries to formulate standards for the safety features in automobiles and include them in the mandatory list of PSQCA.

Previously the Ministry of Industries and Production (MoIP) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) had failed to develop the standard despite holding various meetings over developing a national standard for vehicles being manufactured/ assembled in the country.

On the direction of PAC, which had taken notice of poor quality of local vehicles last month, the two ministries had later held meetings on the same issue. However, according to insiders, a consensus had not been made in this regard, for, what the sources claim, reluctance of local auto firms and EDB, regarding accepting the standards set by PSQCA.

Earlier it was informed that keeping in view the fact that the Government of Pakistan has acceded to the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the efforts are being made to either formulate local standards based on UN Regulation or directly adopt relevant international regulations. In this regard multiple technical committees of relevant stakeholders have been working.