Public Accounts Committee Bashes The Big 3 Car Companies
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recently called a meeting to discuss the standards of the automotive sector. Chairman PAC Noor Alam Khan got furious over the low quality of locally assembled cars in Pakistan and demanded the Big 3 companies get their act together.
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Asim Ahmed, Secretary Industries and Production Imdad Bosal, CEO of Engineering Development Board (EDB) Raza Abbas Shah, and representatives of car companies were among the attendees of this meeting.
Meeting Agenda
The panel discussed the issues of the Pakistani automotive industry, such as
- Delays in car deliveries
- Poor build quality of locally assembled cars
- Low safety standards of locally assembled cars
- Localization of car parts
Chairman PAC called the CEOs of Big 3 car companies (Pak Suzuki, Toyota Indus, and Honda Atlas) for not bothering to attend the meeting and answering these concerns.
Things got out of hand when the Suzuki representative mentioned that the company has orders for 20,000 units, claiming that the new Suzuki cars contain all the safety features. PAC Chairman snapped at the statement saying Suzuki cars don’t even have airbags and the company should not lie about its safety standards.
The Chairman then went on to point out that these companies committed to localizing the production of car parts in 2010 but failed to make it happen. Meanwhile, Senator Shibli Faraz called the automobile companies a “mafia” and raised the question of why the country has been unable to produce engines locally.
The meeting came to the conclusion that the automakers need to improve their quality and service, and the Engineering Development Board (EDB) should ensure that.
The authorities have arranged a series of meetings to go over these issues, but nothing solid has come out of these sessions. Let’s see if PAC’s words affect the car companies and wake them up.