NA committee seeks funding for PCSIR

The panel wants sufficient budget for research purposes

ISLAMABAD: A panel of the lower house of Parliament called upon the government to allocate sufficient budget for research in the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR).

The agenda of the meeting, which was chaired by Senator Tariq Bashir Cheema on Tuesday, was to discuss the performance of PCSIR, which is attached to the ministry of science and technology. PTI lawmaker Ali Muhammad Khan asked the chairman PCSIR Dr Shahzad Alam to brief the committee about the research work carried out by the council.

The committee was informed that sufficient budget was not allocated for the council in the past which affected the research work. He claimed that despite limited resources, the council had carried out quality research work. The meeting was attended by minister for science and technology, Rana Tanveer Hussain.

The committee chairman, Senator Tariq Bashir Cheema, said that the allocation of sufficient budget on research in PCSIR was the need of the hour, which would allow the council to perform more effectively. The committee was informed that, from 2009 to 2013, the council had faced a number of problems due to non-allocation of adequate funds.

Dr Shahzad Alam told the committee that he had attended regular meetings of the committee since taking charge. He also said that many institutes including Institute of Industrial Electronics Engineering, Pak-Swiss Training Centre, Karachi, Precision Systems Training Centre, Lahore, and Applied Chemistry Research Centre, were functional under the council.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2016.