ISLAMABAD: The Minister for Science and Technology, Rana Tanveer, said on Tuesday that his ministry has 16 departments working under it, all of which are ‘totally stagnant’.

Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology, the minister said: “In fact, the performance of these departments has deteriorated.”

The committee was meeting to discuss the ministry’s mandates and the financial constraints that had affected research and development in all the departments of the ministry.

Rana Tanveer asked the committee to assist the ministry in getting the funds necessary for improvement.

“This year the funds allocated to the ministry was less than last years’ even,” the minister said, and informed the committee that the total budget for research and development in Pakistan was as little as 0.29 pc of the Gross Domestic Product.

The meeting was told that the budget today for the National Institute of Electronics, a department working under the ministry, was less than what was allocated to it when it was first formed in the 1970s and that Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research only had Rs500,000 to pay for 70 scientific projects that are still pending.

The committee learnt that a lack of research and development in the 16 departments had resulted in the better qualified people to leave Pakistan in search of better jobs.

Dr Mohammad Ashraf, chairman of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, another department of the ministry, told the committee that if his organisation was not given funding, it will lose its staff and two dozen state of the art laboratories worth Rs1.2 billion.

MQM Senator Mian Mohammad Ateeq Sheikh speculated that the government was deliberately reducing funds to the ministry so it could privatize some of its departments. However Rana Tanveer assured the committee that the government had no such plans.

Chairman of the Committee, Osman Saifullah Khan said research and development was not a priority of the present government.

“If the government had wanted to, it could have arranged the money. It is obvious the government has different priorities,” he said.

PPP Senator Saleem Mandiwala agreed with the chairman and said it should not be difficult for Rana Tanveer to convince the government to release funds to his ministry for rehabilitating research organisations.

Members of the committee assured the Minister for Science and Technology that they will assist him and will help in securing funds for research and development from the Finance Division.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2015