ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology on Wednesday ratified the ‘Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2022’ by a majority vote, paving the way for the government to shift the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) headquarter from Karachi to Islamabad.

However, senators Rukhsana Zuberi and Kamran Murtaza opposed the bill.

As the bill did not mention the name of the city where the headquarters would be moved, the chairman of the committee recommended including the name ‘Federal Capital’ in the amended bill as per the desire of the ministry.

The committee chairman Senator Sardar Mohammad Shafiq Tareen asked the ministry of science and technology to furnish details of unutilised funds in the next meeting.

Members discussed in detail the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2022, moved by Senator Kaida Babar.

Bill paves way to shift authority’s headquarters from Karachi to Islamabad

The committee chairman said PSQCA headquarters should have been kept in Karachi which was the economic hub of the country. What would be the effect of relocating the organization, he inquired?

Officials from the ministry while responding to the queries asserted that in an emergency it was difficult and time-consuming to travel from Islamabad to Karachi and vice versa.

Being think-tank of the ministry, PSQCA needed to be shifted from Karachi to Islamabad as all the headquarters and the ministry are located in the capital.

The committee was informed that out of the 800 employees, 300 were in Karachi, adding that the ministry simply wanted to shift the operational setup (including policy decision-makers) to Islamabad.

The officials maintained that only 30 employees, inter alia, including director general, director legal, director finance and director human resources would be relocated.

Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz underlined that PSQCA was an important organisation and indispensable for checking the quality and standard of those items and commodities that were imported and exported.

The minister underscored that policies were afoot and measures were being taken to eradicate corruption from the authority.

“We want to make PSQCA more productive,” he added.

Replying to a question by Senator Rukhsana Zuberi, the minister for science and technology said a comprehensive system was in place to check the standard and quality of items.

The standards for fans and geysers had been set while design and effectiveness were being observed for which PSQCA laboratories had also been restructured.

“We are proceeding towards increasing the existing 166 standards and added that the organisation is working closely with the food authority to improve the quality of food,” he said.

After discussing the bill in detail, the standing committee passed the bill by a majority vote. As senators Rukhsana Zuberi, opposed the bill, Senator Kamran Murtaza was of the view that the harmony among the provinces might get affected by this amendment therefore he did not favour the bill either.

Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz assured the committee that PSQCA would also be set up in Gwadar while upgrading the existing one in Quetta.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2022