THE market economy stands on three basic pillars – producers or service providers, consumers and regulators. Each of them has rights and privileges and a corresponding set of responsibilities and obligations. But where regulators are either weak or non-existent, producers/service providers exploit their privileges without bothering about their obligations. Consumers across Pakistan find this out the hard way every time they make a purchase or seek the delivery of a service. Ask those who were vainly wandering from one ATM to the other on Eid, or those who wanted to talk to their near and dear ones on the holy festival but couldn’t because of clogged networks. Producers/service providers can make the excuse that Eid was a special occasion with too many people needing money or using their cellphones. But even in ordinary circumstances, consumers rarely get what they bargain for. As a number of cases at a consumer court in Lahore have shown, car manufacturers, banks, producers and sellers of goods, and telecommunication companies have all failed their consumers ever so often. In fact, violation of consumer rights is rife across Pakistan and across all sectors of the economy. In some well-publicised cases, companies with an interna tional presence have been found neglecting consumer rights so blatantly that one wonders whether they care at all.

But the court mentioned above is one of the few consumer protection forums that we have. There is little public awareness even about those that exist. Except for people who still somehow reach them, all other consumers are left to rant and rave in private about the money they lose on faulty products and less than satisfactory services. The intent here is not to condemn business and private entrepreneurship; the point is that business practices must be ethical. Business always thrives in a society that has laws and that respects them as much as it has the willingness to implement them. But no society can hope to do well by making exemptions to the rule of law. If producers and service providers think that their rights and privileges need legal protection of the best kind, they also need to ensure that they follow rules and regulations with the same assiduousness when it comes to respecting others’ rights. No business can run profitably in a legal void. This is as true for seeking legal protection for business contracts and money transactions as it is for ensuring that consumers get the best value for their money.