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PCSIR gets equipment for research
The Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) has acquired modern equipment for research and development activities in order to facilitate the country’s industrial sector.
This was stated by director-general of the PCSIR Laboratories Complex, Dr Tanzil Haider, while talking at a radio programme recently. He said a number of industrial and technological processes developed at the PCSIR laboratories had been sold to industrial units which helped save foreign exchange by substituting imports.
He said the federal government had provided substantial funds to the premier institution, which had well-equipped research laboratories in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and other cities. A PCSIR laboratory had been built in Quetta which would start functioning soon, he said.
Dr Haider claimed that research and development activities carried out by the 2,000 scientists of PCSIR were of international standard. This included formulations developed for removing rubber particles of tyres from runways at airports across the country.
He added that the PCSIR had carried out geological studies on the coal reserves in Lakhra, Sindh, which showed that these contained high sulphur content. A washing plant had been set up in Lakhra after which a Chinese company had set up a power plant using Lakhra coal.
He said similar studies had been carried out on the Thar coal reserves in Sindh, which revealed that these were of a better quality.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) will develop 195 acres for hi-tech industries in Sector I-12, said some sources last week. The Environmental Protection Agency will provide technical assistance for the prevention and control of pollution in the area set aside for the purpose.
The authority decided that in future no industrial unit would be allowed in the I series beyond Sector I-12 sector. The capital already had an industrial area besides a subsidiary one located in the southern sectors where small and medium industrial units were allowed, except those likely to create environmental pollution.
Along the Kahuta Road on the bank of the river, only such industrial units had been allowed which required huge quantity of water or those which caused dust, noise and smell pollution. A total of 1,249 manufacturing units had been allotted plots in the industrial zones. Some 756 manufacturing units were built and 493 were already operating, added the sources.
The NWFP directorate of information technology plans to establish a software technology park in Peshawar, it is learnt. A source said Rs150 million had been allocated in the federal PSDP for establishing the park in Peshawar on the condition that land for the project would be provided by the provincial government free of cost.
“The site for the park has been identified in Gulbahar Colony and now a feasibility report will be prepared,” said Sarwar Gondal, a director of the IT directorate. He added that work on the three-year-project would start in six months.
One such park had been established in 2001 by the previous government in the building of the defunct Peshawar Development Authority in Hayatabad, which now houses the ST directorate. The then management had offered incentives to software houses, like free internet access, security and low rents.
Six software houses had set up shop at the IT park but they soon had to be closed down due to a lack of work and government support, it was learnt. “The government is not encouraging local software houses,” said an IT professional who ran a software house in the IT park.
The Ninth Symposium on Analytical and Environmental Chemistry which was jointly organised by the Institute of Chemical Sciences, University of Peshawar, and the National Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, held at the Bara Gali Summer Campus, concluded recently.
The conference was attended by more than 150 scientists and researchers from all over the country, besides some delegates from Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Romania. Some 50 original papers were presented by scientists and 103 posters were displayed during the conference.
As many as 423 cases of Aids or HIV had been reported in the country, of which 29 involved fully blown Aids, the federal minister for health, M. Naseer Khan, told the National Assembly late last week. The minister said the government had initiated several steps to check the outbreak of Aids in the country and had also launched a national programme in this regard. — Agencies
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