Science and technology: Headless bodies taking toll on development, research projects

Ministry recently sought applications from candidates, but ad carries anomalies.

ISLAMABAD:

Around 10 organisations working under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) are currently functioning without permanent heads, taking a toll on research and development projects.

After months of delay, the ministry recently invited applications to fill the 10 head level positions, currently being run by people with acting charge.

The Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), the apex body for promotion and funding of scientific and technological research in the country, has lacked a permanent head since April 14.

“Last year, a European country refused to carry out a joint venture with us because of the general output of the organisation and overall performance in the research area,” said a PSF official on condition of anonymity.

Similarly, other organisations were being run by deputationists or junior officials who lack the relevant qualification and expertise.

The position of directors general (DGs) of the National Institute of Electronics (NIE), Islamabad and the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Karachi, have been lying vacant for the last four years, with junior officers running them.

Meanwhile, the in-charge of the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (PCST), Islamabad, is with a professor from Balochistan, who is on a deputation.

Similarly, the affairs of the Pakistan Council for Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET), Islamabad, the Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC), Islamabad and the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), Karachi, were being run by officers having acting charge.

The Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), Islamabad, the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Islamabad, and the Council for Works and Housing Research (CWHR), Karachi, were also without regular heads since October.

Science and Technology Additional Secretary Muhammad Ejaz Mian, who is also holding acting charge of the PSF since January, claimed that in the absence of a permanent head, no compromised was made on quality or performance.

“The issue which I have witnessed in offices is bad governance and not the absence of permanent heads,” he said.

But another officer said that at a recent meeting when a member of science was asked about the progress of the organisation in last four years, he scrambled to answer a satisfactory answer. “It is not the issue of heads but the whole staff which have made these organisations sick and dysfunctional,” he said.

While talking about the headless bodies, Science and Technology Secretary Kamran Ali Qureshi said they were in the process of appointing permanent heads at the earliest.

According to a press release of the ministry, meetings were also being held to review the administrative structure of the ministry and its subsidiary organisations to identify overlapping functions, over employment and redundancies.

Interestingly, the advertisement appeared in newspapers on April 27 and carried ambiguous and contradictory qualification requirements against the 10 vacant positions.

According to an officer at the PCST, in some categories experience has been sought but without mentioning the nature of the experience — whether administrative, managerial, teaching or research etc. Similarly, for the position of the PCSIR chairperson, the ministry has invited people with degrees in natural and social sciences. “How can a social scientist hold a technical position, when he has never been in such business?” asked an officer.

But the Science and Technology additional secretary insisted that only people with relevant experience have been invited after “thorough deliberations” to fill the vacant positions.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2014.