ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology on Thursday expressed annoyance over the delay in setting up of Halal Food Authority (HFA) and directed the minister and the Establishment Division to constitute the authority within one month and complete the process of appointments during the next one-and-a-half months.

The committee met at the Pakistan Engineering Council with Senator Mushtaq Ahmed in the chair.

According to a bill tabled by former minister for science and technology Rana Tanveer Hussain and passed during the PML-N tenure, there is a need to establish the HFA to promote imports and exports and trade with provinces and other countries in halal articles.

Ministry and Establishment Division told to put the authority in place without further delay

There is a huge international market of halal business, bulk of which is being taken away by non-Muslim countries.

The scope of the halal sector covers a wide range of items such as food, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, food supplements and toiletries etc. Pakistan has only a nominal share of this huge export potential due to the non-existence of a legal and recognised entity/authority.

The chairman of the committee said the bill was passed years ago but the authority could not be established as recruitments were pending because of bureaucratic hitches.

“The business of halal meat is worth $20 billion but Pakistan could not get the benefit because we have failed to set up the authority. It should have been established long ago. Is there any timeframe for the completion of such things just like we get instruction from the Senate Secretariat that a bill should be passed within three months,” he asked.

Joint Secretary Establishment Division Anjum Bashir said there was no restriction to complete making rules in a certain period of time.

“We had sent the proposals to the ministry in Feb 2017 and the ministry should have got the recruitment rules approved from the federal cabinet rather than arguing on some of the posts which could be created or upgraded later,” he said.

Secretary Science and Technology Yasmin Masood agreed that the draft should have been approved long ago but said she was not in the ministry at that time.

She said even furniture had been purchased for the authority and its office was selected. Only recruitment of staff is required, she said.

“I can assure you that the recruitment rules would be approved from the federal cabinet in around three weeks but the process of requirement will take time. Moreover, the Establishment Division will have to finalise other issues,” she said.

A representative of the Establishment Division said all the pending issues would be addressed in just one day if the ministry gets the recruiting rules approved from the federal government.

“I direct the ministry to get the recruiting rules approved from the federal cabinet in a month and make the authority functional after completing the process of appointments in next one-and-a-half months,” said Senator Mushtaq Ahmed.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2018