Islamabad
The Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology was apprised here Thursday that 11 sub-ordinate organizations of the Ministry of Science and Technology remain without heads for a long time, causing severe difficulties in pursuance of their official and administrative matters. Due to non appointment of permanent heads of those organizations, the officers promotion were also facing delay, Secretary Ministry for Science and Technology (MoST) informed the Senate body, that met under the Chairmanship of Senator Mushtaq Ahmed.
The performance of majority of the departments working under the Ministry was not up to the mark as officers from other departments were given the look after taking charge of those organizations, he said. The organizations without its Chairman included, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), Pakistan Council of Res-earch in Water Resources (PCRWR), Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (PCST), Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC), Pakistan Council for Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET), National Institute of Electronics (NIE) National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Council for Work and Housing Research (CWHR), STEDEC Technology Commercialization Corporation of Pakistan (Private) Limited and Pakistan Halal Authority (PHA).
A summery regarding the regular appoints of the said organizations had already been moved to the Cabinet for approval, the Secretary informed. Reviewing the budgetary allocation, the Committee was informed that, Rs 1300 million has been allocated under Public Sector Development Programme for the fiscal year 2019-20 while, Rs 6107 million has been allocated for task force projects. There were 23 projects approved by the Ministry, while the number of task force projects was 8, which was in the approval phase.
Last year, the Ministry’s budget was Rs 1487.7 million out of which 716 million were released and 538 million were utilized.—APP
