LAHORE: The renting out of a building of one of the prime research centres at the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) to a private firm in the provincial capital has raised concern among the researchers’ community, as well as the council employees.

The PCSIR authorities have recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a private IT-related company, renting out to it the building of Glass and Ceramics Research Centre, covering 24,900sq-ft area, against Rs1.45 million per month rent.

In a letter written to the prime minister to seek his intervention, some PCSIR employees have alleged that the authorities concerned did not even bother to seek permission from the 21-member council managing affairs of the research complex on the Ferozepur Road, as per rules, before signing the MoU.

Employees seek prime minister’s intervention

Though the MoU doesn’t specify which building is to be rented out, the authorities have asked the Glass and Ceramics Centre administration to vacate its three-storey block and shift its machinery to some other place, notwithstanding the fact that the buildings lying vacant at the research complex presently could have been be given to the private firm if it was necessary to do so.

It is feared that the centre’s machinery may get damaged during the shifting from its ‘purpose-built’ building to another location, and can also affect the research work.

Highlighting the importance of the Glass and Ceramics Research Centre, the letter says it is currently providing testing facilities to major China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

It also mentions that the since its inception 68 years back the centre has developed a good number of technologies for glass, ceramic, cement, construction, power plants, dams and allied industries.

PCSIR Director-General Dr Quratul Ain says only two floors of the ceramics centre lying vacant for years have been rented out to a micro-chip making firm, though the staff of the Centre claim that they have been given one week to vacate the ground floor as well.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2021