Right-sizing move targets science foundation

Matter discussed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology.

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government's Right-Sizing Committee on Wednesday proposed shutting down the Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF).

The matter was discussed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology.

During the briefing, the science and technology secretary highlighted the challenges faced by the PSF, revealing that the appointment of a temporary head for the organization led to legal complications. "When a temporary head was appointed, officials went to court, and this resulted in a contempt of court notice being issued to the federal minister," he explained.

The secretary stated that while the PSF's board was fully functional and managing affairs the absence of an executive head raised questions about who held executive powers.

Committee Chairperson Kamil Agha pointed out that the board could not exercise executive powers to which the secretary responded that a panel for appointing a permanent head was already sent to the federal government for approval.

Defending the foundation, the secretary emphasized that the PSF was the only institution dedicated to promoting science in the country, adding that it would not be allowed to be dismantled.

Meanwhile, the Senate panel deliberated on the sale of adulterated food items and expressed concern over the absence of heads in more than half of the departments under the Ministry of Science.

The committee members raised concerns about the unchecked promotion of food items through misleading advertisements.

The committee chairman stated that tea whiteners were being sold in the name of milk and "poison" in the name of pickles. He regretted that no one was held accountable for such acts.

Senator Nadeem Ahmed Bhutto noted that frozen food "was nothing but poison".

The science and technology secretary pointed out that companies while advertising tea whiteners claimed that they were good for tea. He further stated that in many ice cream advertisements, the term "ice cream" was not used because the product contained vegetable fat.