ISLAMABAD: Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC) intends to award accreditation to the green buildings in Pakistan till the year 2022 to complement the efforts of incumbent government toward achieving green energy efficiency and motivating people to build energy efficient buildings.
The novel project was conceived by the Director General PNAC, Ismat Gul Khattak, who took charge of the office four months ago, and wanted to implement the idea for promoting the concept of green buildings in Pakistan.
Talking to APP, Ismat Gul Khattak said the initiative would help encourage people to construct green buildings which would address the issue of energy and water wastage as well as raise the international image of the country. “The world would know that Pakistan too have green buildings”, she added.
The DG observed that the green building codes exist in Pakistan however, there was need to implement these so that more people would incline towards energy efficient buildings in the country.
Disclosing another innovative project, she said PNAC wanted to introduce the idea of hospital accreditation system in Pakistan as only Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Shifa International and Agha Khan Hospital got accreditation from United States based Joint Commission International (JCI) body which is very expensive.
PNAC has decided to introduce a parallel hospitals accreditation system in Pakistan on which work has been started, she said.
Under this project, accreditation would be awarded on minimal rates to the hospitals ensuring the international quality and standards.
She said this was a huge task for which they have to conduct trainings of hospitals staff of different disciplines for preparing a team.” We will invite international coaches from United States and European countries to train the staff”, she said.
This initiative would promote health tourism in the country and patients who mostly move to other countries like Thailand and India etc. would come to Pakistan for medical treatment, she opined.
Listing another initiative to be taken near future, she said, a project of introducing organic farming certification would be initiated which according to the Director General (DG) was very close to her heart.
She observed that the organic farming could be done in some areas of the country which were still virgin where no traditional farming has been done and no fertilizers and pesticides were used.
There were many such plants and trees in the hilly areas of the country which were of medicinal value and were highly demanded in the international market, she said while emphasizing on exporting these items.
She said certification of Global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) was essential for rice and other potential export items as well as Good Laboratory practices (GLP) were also critically needed for pharmaceutical exports.
The DG also mentioned that the present government was eagerly focusing on tree plantation under its billion tree project so there was also need to introduce forestry accreditation. “PNAC is also working on introducing the idea of forestry accreditation”, she said.
The world has progressed so much in agriculture sector as some of the countries have even started vertical farming and people were utilizing the roofs and side walls for agriculture purposes while Pakistan was still not utilizing fully its potential in agriculture field, she observed.
The DG said all such initiatives would be implemented gradually and would take two to three years due to shortage of staff. “If PNAC would have required staff, all these initiative could have been launched within six months period”, she said.
About the accreditation, she said PNAC, working under Ministry of Science and Technology, was formed actually for improvement of trade and economic situation in the country along with facilitating the industry and removing barriers.
The website of PNAC was dynamic and providing all required information about accreditation process while the staff also kept vigilance for people contacting through phone and other sources and promptly respond to their accreditation related needs.
She said accreditation was the name of confidence which was shown over a product, company or a person and it could be met through following international standards in manufacturing of any product.
She said that it was very unfortunate that the accreditation process was not mandatory in our country which should have been done in some areas.
Ismat Gul Khattak said that since Pakistan was one of the developing countries where it was not possible to make accreditation process 100 percent mandatory, however, it should be declared mandatory in the products and practices related to the human health, trade and export.
She revealed that the PNAC has so far awarded certification to over 200 Halal certification bodies, laboratories, inspection bodies and certification bodies.
About the procedure, she apprised that the process of accreditation included guidance, checking standards as per Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) standards, receiving formal applications and reviewing all the aspects.
The departments which were involved in international trade contact the PNAC to get accreditation as it was their requirement.
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