The proposal to set up a housing colony by erasing National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC) has been initiated at the behest of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Member National Assembly, Dr Tariq Fazl Chaudhry, to enhance value of huge chunk of land owned by him adjacent to the research centre.
"The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has prepared the proposal to set up a housing colony at the site of Pakistan's premier research institute in the field of agriculture on the recommendation of Dr Tariq Fazl Chaudhry PML-N MNA to enhance the value of his 100 acres land," said Nadeem Iqbal a farmer and advisor to NARC during a function organised by Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS) in support of NARC and against CDA's proposal.
The CDA has submitted a proposal to the Prime Minister for conversion of the land allotted to NARC, into residential and commercial blocks for generation of revenue.
Iqbal said that according to the original master plan of Islamabad, Zone-4 was earmarked for agro farming therefore NARC was set in Zone-4 of the federal capital. "There are more than 24,000 germplasm - the living genetic resources such as seed or tissue that is maintained for the purpose of animal and plant breeding, preservation, and other research uses-how can it be relocated," he said. Dr Amir Muhammad Khan former chairman NARC said that research is fundamental to agriculture development therefore shutting down the country top agriculture research institution NARC would be economic suicide.
He said that agriculture sector is the backbone of country's economy and it contributes 24 percent to GDP and 45 percent of labour force. "It was the responsibility of the government to further improve the standard of research institutions for betterment of agriculture sector in the country," he said.
A senior official of NARC said that the lease agreement between NARAC and CDA expired in 2005 and the top management of the NARC has written several letters to the civic body to extend the lease agreement and pay the rent but to no avail. To question about the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (NFS&R) stance regarding CDA's proposal, he said that the ministry did not support the CDA proposal.
Dr Zabita Khan Shenwari secretary of PAS said that NARC is spread over an area of 1395 acre of which 1149 acres is farm land with two water reservoirs. The major function of NARC includes strategic research on national and provincial priorities, exploratory research on new commodities, co-ordination and linkages with provincial and international research system. Its functions also include provision of services to provincial research system including germplasm conservation and supply of human resources development and agriculture scientific information, he said.
He said that the proposal seems to have been prepared by those who have no sense of the importance of scientific research, especially the agricultural research, which is the bloodline of Pakistan's economy. Agricultural research is the only means for attainment of food security for the growing population, he said. Dr Anwar Naseem Secretary General PAS and Sardar Ghulam Mustafa, President of Pakistan Agriculture Council (PARC) officers association were also present on the occasion.
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