Islamabad: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Science and Technology convened its third meeting at the PCSIR Head Office under the chairmanship of MNA Khawaja Sheraz Mehmood. The meeting was intended to receive a briefing from the Chairman of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) on its functions and responsibilities, but the Chairman was absent due to another engagement in Skardu.

According to National Assembly of Pakistan, the committee expressed dissatisfaction with the Chairman’s absence, emphasizing that parliamentary business should take precedence over other assignments. The absence led to the deferral of several important issues, including concerns about the lack of methodology for selecting MPhil and PhD scholars under PCSIR’s Data Repository of Scientific Instrumentation.

The committee was briefed by a PCSIR representative on the ongoing PSDP projects for 2024-2025, which include initiatives such as the cultivation and processing of industrial cannabis in Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar, and the development of digital transformation and automation systems at PCSIR. Other projects discussed included the establishment of the Medical Equipment and Devices Innovation Center (MEDICen) and the development of gene-editing technologies for nutritional, biochemical, and therapeutic purposes.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Abdul Karim Bijjar, Sadiq Iftikhar, Khuram Shahzad Virk, Ghous Muhammad, and senior officers from the Ministries of Science and Technology and PCSIR.