Ijaz Kakakhel
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research on Thursday directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (NFS&R) to appoint senior most scientist as acting chairman Pakistan Agriculture and Research Council (PARC) within one week until the permanent appointment is made by the prime minister.
The committee met under the chairmanship of Javed Iqbal Warriach at PARC head office. The committee expressed serious reservations over giving the charge of PARC chairmanship to a person who is not qualified for the post. All heads within the PARC have been changed on political and personal like and dislike basis. The senior most scientists were either ignored or put in a place where they are unfit for the job.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) legislator Abdul Kadir Khanzada told the committee that according to rules and tradition when a chairman of PARC is going to retire, the senior most is given the acting charge. But here the rules are violated and someone else is appointed as the acting chairman. He suggested the committee to appoint senior most scientist in the PARC as its acting chairman. Dr Shahid Ahmad, Dr Muneer, Dr Mohammad Ali and others were sidelined and most of the departments were run through inefficient and influential employees.
Khanzada, when asked about the qualification of and the status of present chairman of PARC, the present acting chairman Naveed Salimi said the post of chairman is currently vacant and he has given the charge of PARC on look after basis in addition to his own duties until further orders. The PARC chairman would be a scientist and president of Pakistan would appoint him, Salimi added.
Chuadhary Iftikhar Nazir said that violating PARC Ordinance, NFS&R has appointed a totally non-technical bureaucrat as chairman of the council depriving many researchers and scientists of elevation. As per the ordinance’s relevant clause only an agriculture expert having PhD with renowned experience of working at PARC and other research institutions can be appointed as PARC chairman, he said
He said that due to bureaucratic bottleneck at PARC the management of PARC has made some senior scientists OSD and they have assigned no responsibility. These scientists include Dr Shahid Ahmad (CS-1 BPS-21) and Dr Ahmad Bakhax Meher (CSO-BPS-20), who have been made OSD and some of the scientists who have strong links with the management have been assigned additional charges, he said. He also said a group of four senior officials have made hostage the federal minister for NFS&R and the minister follows their advice.
NFS&R Secretary Ahmad Baksh Lehari said that the ministry has sent a summary to the prime minister in this regard and the new chairman will take notice of all allegations and will make his team.
PARC is the apex body and plays an important role in promotion of agriculture production in the country but regretted that appropriate attention was not given to this department. He claimed that the department is near collapse. MNA Ch Iftikhar Nazir said some scientists have kept several additional charges in the PARC while the efficient people were sidelined. The committee was of the view that there are serious allegations against the PARC and its current management. The prominent scientists are going to Canada, Australia and other countries due to unfavourable situation created in these institutions.
The committee was informed that a group of selected people in the PARC misguide the federal minister for National Food and Research and do all misdeeds in the name of minister. They are misusing the minister’s name in all wrong doings and the committee directed the secretary to inform the minister about the exact situation of PARC.
The committee also expressed some reservations over the appointment of people in the name of Aghaz-e-Haqooqi Balochistan. The NFS&R additional secretary told the committee that it is a temporary arrangement in the PARC as the summary for appointment of permanent chairman was already sent to the prime minister.
Lehari assured the committee that action should be taken according to the committee’s instructions.
MNA Muhammad Aslam Bodla requested the chairman of the committee to take notice of corruption worth billions of rupees and flaws committed by the management of PASCO in distribution of gunny bags (bardana). He pointed out that bardana was openly sold in the market by some of the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) officials and poor farmers were not getting benefit of it in violation of its own policy. Under the PASSCO policy, bardana will be distributed among farmers and its total number will be 200 but PASCO official never followed these rules and allegedly sold bardana in the open market by taking Rs 50 to Rs 100 bribe per bag, he said.
On this Javed Iqbal Warriach directed Lehari to investigate flaws in the distribution of bardana and call the PASSCO managing director in the next meeting.Dr Shahid Masood briefed the committee about the administrative set up as well as scientific activities of PARC through its various research centres and institutions across the country. The committee stressed the need for more focused research oriented activities, which could be helpful in further straightening of the agriculture sector in Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research on Thursday directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (NFS&R) to appoint senior most scientist as acting chairman Pakistan Agriculture and Research Council (PARC) within one week until the permanent appointment is made by the prime minister.
The committee met under the chairmanship of Javed Iqbal Warriach at PARC head office. The committee expressed serious reservations over giving the charge of PARC chairmanship to a person who is not qualified for the post. All heads within the PARC have been changed on political and personal like and dislike basis. The senior most scientists were either ignored or put in a place where they are unfit for the job.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) legislator Abdul Kadir Khanzada told the committee that according to rules and tradition when a chairman of PARC is going to retire, the senior most is given the acting charge. But here the rules are violated and someone else is appointed as the acting chairman. He suggested the committee to appoint senior most scientist in the PARC as its acting chairman. Dr Shahid Ahmad, Dr Muneer, Dr Mohammad Ali and others were sidelined and most of the departments were run through inefficient and influential employees.
Khanzada, when asked about the qualification of and the status of present chairman of PARC, the present acting chairman Naveed Salimi said the post of chairman is currently vacant and he has given the charge of PARC on look after basis in addition to his own duties until further orders. The PARC chairman would be a scientist and president of Pakistan would appoint him, Salimi added.
Chuadhary Iftikhar Nazir said that violating PARC Ordinance, NFS&R has appointed a totally non-technical bureaucrat as chairman of the council depriving many researchers and scientists of elevation. As per the ordinance’s relevant clause only an agriculture expert having PhD with renowned experience of working at PARC and other research institutions can be appointed as PARC chairman, he said
He said that due to bureaucratic bottleneck at PARC the management of PARC has made some senior scientists OSD and they have assigned no responsibility. These scientists include Dr Shahid Ahmad (CS-1 BPS-21) and Dr Ahmad Bakhax Meher (CSO-BPS-20), who have been made OSD and some of the scientists who have strong links with the management have been assigned additional charges, he said. He also said a group of four senior officials have made hostage the federal minister for NFS&R and the minister follows their advice.
NFS&R Secretary Ahmad Baksh Lehari said that the ministry has sent a summary to the prime minister in this regard and the new chairman will take notice of all allegations and will make his team.
PARC is the apex body and plays an important role in promotion of agriculture production in the country but regretted that appropriate attention was not given to this department. He claimed that the department is near collapse. MNA Ch Iftikhar Nazir said some scientists have kept several additional charges in the PARC while the efficient people were sidelined. The committee was of the view that there are serious allegations against the PARC and its current management. The prominent scientists are going to Canada, Australia and other countries due to unfavourable situation created in these institutions.
The committee was informed that a group of selected people in the PARC misguide the federal minister for National Food and Research and do all misdeeds in the name of minister. They are misusing the minister’s name in all wrong doings and the committee directed the secretary to inform the minister about the exact situation of PARC.
The committee also expressed some reservations over the appointment of people in the name of Aghaz-e-Haqooqi Balochistan. The NFS&R additional secretary told the committee that it is a temporary arrangement in the PARC as the summary for appointment of permanent chairman was already sent to the prime minister.
Lehari assured the committee that action should be taken according to the committee’s instructions.
MNA Muhammad Aslam Bodla requested the chairman of the committee to take notice of corruption worth billions of rupees and flaws committed by the management of PASCO in distribution of gunny bags (bardana). He pointed out that bardana was openly sold in the market by some of the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) officials and poor farmers were not getting benefit of it in violation of its own policy. Under the PASSCO policy, bardana will be distributed among farmers and its total number will be 200 but PASCO official never followed these rules and allegedly sold bardana in the open market by taking Rs 50 to Rs 100 bribe per bag, he said.
On this Javed Iqbal Warriach directed Lehari to investigate flaws in the distribution of bardana and call the PASSCO managing director in the next meeting.Dr Shahid Masood briefed the committee about the administrative set up as well as scientific activities of PARC through its various research centres and institutions across the country. The committee stressed the need for more focused research oriented activities, which could be helpful in further straightening of the agriculture sector in Pakistan.
Original Article Here
0 comments:
Post a Comment