KARACHI, May 19: There is a need on the part of the government to spend more on scientific research in the country.

This was stated by Dr S M Qureshi, Chairman, Charter Inspection and Evaluation Committee, while inaugurating the First Research Conference on Management, Computer and Social Sciences, organized by the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (ZABIST).

He emphasized on three major components of research, which were, human resource development, application of research and the scientific and technological services, that support research.

Dr Qureshi stressed the need to promote the culture of research to encourage individuals to do research in the fields of information technology, management and social sciences, which he hoped would play vital role in the social and economic development of the country.

The ZABIST, he said, being a quality research institute, provided a platform for research in the country and added that Pakistan was spending just 0.25 per cent of its GNP on the research activities, which was much less, as compared to India’s one per cent, South Korea’s 2.5 per cent, USA 2.5 per cent and Spain’s 3 per cent of its GNP.

Dr Javaid Laghari, Vice-President and Project Director of the ZABIST said that his institution had introduced the PhD programmes in the management, computer and social sciences and Economics, and announced that the ZABIST would organize annual research conferences to provide researchers an opportunity to present their research work at both national and international levels.

The ZABIST had recently launched Pakistan’s first online journal, The Journal of Independent Studies and Research (JISR), to encourage researchers to get their research work recognized throughout the world, he added.

Over 250 scholars, from all over the country, attended the research conference, while over 30 research papers were presented at the conference in three parallel sessions, out of which 17 papers were related to computer sciences, eight to management sciences and five papers to social sciences and economics.—APP