A consumer court in Karachi issued notices to a large departmental store chain and the manufacturer of a washing machine, asking them to submit their replies by December 17, as a citizen filed a complaint over supplying a machine that soon became out-of-order, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday.

The complainant, in this case, is Muhammad Sajid after which the Consumer Court, Karachi East, issued these orders against Imtiaz Super Market and Kenwood – a British brand that manufactures a whole range of electric home appliances.

According to the applicant, he is a cancer patient and has no other male family member, making him personally visit dry cleaner to give clothes.

He says he bought the washing machine with a warranty but it developed some fault and stopped functioning after a few months.

Although the concept of protecting the rights of consumers isn’t popular in Pakistan, some progress has been made in this regard.

The idea of consumer protection laws was firstly adopted in Pakistan by the federal government in 1995 when The Islamabad Consumer Protection Act, 1995 was passed. Later, it was followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 1997, by Balochistan in 2003, by Punjab in 2005 and Sindh in 2015.

As a result, consumer courts were established for all the districts so that people may easily access these for the protection of their rights.