Senate body approves bill on NUST establishment

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology on Wednesday approved the bill on establishment of the National University of Science and Technology, expressing concern over the bid to give extension to heads of some bodies without looking into their performance and ignoring the PM’s summary in this context.

PTI Senator Muhammad Azam Swati, who had served as Minister of Science and Technology called for strictly following merit in appointing new heads of the institutions. He even cautioned to approach a court, if any former chairman, including Dr. Muhammad Ashraf, whose contract ended in first week of January, was given another three-year extension. “Everybody knows that during his stint as chairman of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), all the 24 laboratories across Pakistan have been shut down while the only accredited National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) also was denied accreditation for the last two years, yet there are reports in media that he is to be given another three years,” he regretted.

He insisted PCRWR was the only state-owned agency, doing excellent work in water-related issues, stood paralysed presently and it’s over 150 PCRWR employees facing uncertainty about their future.

Talking to The News after the meeting, Senator Swati called for evolving a credible mechanism to gauge performance of head of any agency of his past three years before even considering extending his contract, if at all, it was necessary to keep him serving a particular department. Chairman of the Committee Senator Osman Saifullah presided over the meeting, which decided to deliberate on the allegations of irregularities and corruption, leveled by Minister of State Mir Dostain Khan, who had resigned weeks after taking over the charge.