Science and Technology Minister In-charge Dr Atta-ur-Rahman on Monday said that efforts of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) would usher in technological era in the country soon.
The minister stated this while inaugurating a five-day international seminar on 'Urea Breath Test (UBT)', a convenient test for detection of peptic ulcer, jointly organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), PAEC and HEC.
Dr Atta said the key to prosperity lies in ideas and technologies generated by an educated and trained human resource of a country. In this regard, he cited level of investment made by developed economies in the education programmes for their citizens.
He paid tributes to PAEC for its multi-disciplinary research and development efforts towards economic development of the country, and remarked PAEC's contributions should be emulated.
The minister regretted that quality of university education in the country where only 190 PhDs are being produced by all the institutions of the country put together as against 5,000 by India.
He was especially critical of higher training in engineering subjects which are so vital to the industrial development and where only 5 to 6 PhDs are being produced.
Professor Atta said to give boost to the engineering discipline, the Higher Education Commission has arranged major endowments for the engineering universities, adding the government is aiming at production of 1,000 to 1,200 PhDs per year in coming years.
Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, who is also chairman HEC, said the local PhD programme is being strengthened for a competitive quality at par with their counterparts from abroad, adding that attractive working environments/packages are being offered to lure back the Pak scientists working in other countries.
There are about 300 projects launched by HEC for lifting the higher education qualitatively and quantitatively.
The minister said as against a total outlay of Rs 800 million for science and technology (S&T) some years before, an allocation of Rs 5,000 million exists at present, and this is proposed to be raised to Rs 9,500 million in the coming budget.
Earlier, PAEC Chairman Pervez Butt, in his address of welcome, appreciated the IAEA for its contribution towards development of S&T sector in Pakistan, adding Pakistan is the second largest recipient of technical assistance from the IAEA, and a regular participant in all IAEA activities, therefore, a good receiver of the IAEA aid.
Pervez Butt said the PAEC is involved in minerals development, improvement in crops, nuclear energy, lasers, hydrology, human resource development and health-related projects.
PAEC is operating 13 nuclear medical centres for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer-related diseases and five more cancer treatment centres are coming up, he said, adding more than 350,000 patients benefit from our cancer care facilities annually.
He said PAEC is also offering industrial support services in quality control, welding, design, and manufacturing for industrial growth and quality competitiveness.
Pervez Butt said in the wake of rising menace of Hepatitis, not enough is being done in the country to combat the disease but PAEC would play its role in this regard.
He said Pinstech, a premier research institute of PAEC, has been recently awarded additional funds by the government to enhance further its research output.
To combat over use of irrigation water and bring about economy in the water use, PAEC has developed a laser land leveller, which is in great demand by the farmers and fruit fly traps which help avoid the use of insecticides, he added.
Dr Rakhshanda Bilal, co-ordinator, Urea Breath Test (UBT) project, explained aims and objectives of the seminar.
She said the technical input of the project has brought down the cost of test for detection of peptic ulcer, adding the test facilities are available to public at Nori Hospital, Islamabad.
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