LAHORE, Oct 31: Former chairman of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday bemoaned, what he called, many ‘missed opportunities’ as far as technological history of the country was concerned.

Engineer Javed Akhtar was addressing the 29th annual general meeting of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Pakistan (IEEEP).

He said the country missed the chance to develop iron, steel and mining technologies in the sixties, electrical and semi-conductor electronics in the seventies and computer and telecommunications in the eighties. Now, in the year 2002, the country was still without a defined methodology and action plan to acquire and develop technologically based manufacturing expertise and industry, he added.

Dilating on the WTO and its implications, he said in the present circumstances, it was essential for private sector to produce quality products that could be competitive in the global market.

Earlier, outgoing IEEEP president Engr Syed Tanzim Husain Naqvi, in his keynote address, said with the global downturn and recession, the fortunes of public sector have plummeted in Pakistan. This, unfortunately, effected our solvency too, he added.

He said the IEEEP sincerely felt that privatization of communication and power sectors would be suicidal for the country.

“Reversals suffered by privatization efforts in the UK and South America need to be considered before the Pakistani public sector is doled out,” he warned.

Giving example of France, he said their vibrant and most busy public sector in the country needed to be considered as a role model.

“The French approach is not chauvinistic, but more pragmatic,” he added.

IEEEP honorary secretary-general Engr Capt Syed Khalid Sajjad (retired) said the institution through dissemination of technical knowledge has been trying to imbibe a spirit of nation building within its members.