Federal Minister for Science and Technology Rana Tanveer Hussain vowed to make Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) proficient and result-oriented organization in a meeting that he was chairing to assess the performance of PSQCA.
Hussain further said that PSQCA is a significant support of the ministry to certify quality and standard of food items currently produced and processed in Pakistan, therefore ministry is committed to make it more proficient and result in oriented organization.
The authority has seized due to substandard and unhygienic around 289 different units, together with 144 of bottled water. He added that in the current year authority has issued 465 new licenses to the manufacturers. The proposal for Issuance of Foreign Manufacturing license will also be submitted to Board of Directors in next meeting the director general PSQCA has informed the meeting.
The federal minister directed regional directors of the PSQCA to submit their detailed progress report in their respective areas to the ministry fortnightly. To highlight the quality issues for the awareness of public, he directed to launch a media campaign.
Hussain was once again given a portfolio of Ministry of Science and technology last month. As soon as Hussain was given additional charge – Minister of State for Science and Technology Mir Dostain Khan Domki resigned.
Domki in his resignation explained, that he was probing the inquisitive charges of corruption and money laundering in NTS, while for mismanagement and corruption Comsats was being investigated and PSQA for appointment of a non-eligible person as the director general.
The noteworthy thing is Ministry ‘Babus’ level corruption charges on Domki, claiming he has been asking for files, he is not entitled to sign, being a junior state minister.
Ministry of Science and Technology has been under stringent criticism for nonconformance since decades. Ministry’s initiative to turn the Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET)” into an autonomous body has raised a new wave of criticism. The ministry said in its proposal that Council failed to perform from one and half decades, that is a valid reason made autonomous.
The parliamentarians raised against Ministry that why they do not start cases under service act leading to incompetence of Ministry during the Standing Committee meetings. Ministry failed to supervise PCRET like other departments falling under its territory. More than one dozen specialized organizations working under Ministry of Science and technology.
COMSATS (CIIT), National Institute of Electronics (NIE), National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Pakistan Council for Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET), Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (PCST), Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC),Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC), Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), Pakistan Standards And Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), and STEDEC Technology Commercialization Corporation of Pakistan (Private) Limited fall under the domain of Ministry of Science and technology.