Q. Becoming the Minister for S&T is a challenging task, what would be your priorities for making the Ministry and its organization more effective?
Ans: I shall be taking the following steps / actions to make the organizations under MoST more effective and vibrant :
-Convening of Meeting of the National Commission for Science & Technology (NCST) under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister after almost 15 years. Necessary approvals shall be obtained with regard to attainment of fruitful results in the R&D Sector of Pakistan keeping in view the Vision 2025 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as set by the UN.
-Merit based appointments through a transparent system shall be ensured.
-Approval of the Bills from the parliament shall be expedited to ensure that all the organizations under MoST have legal status.
-Target oriented Assignments shall be entrusted to all the organizational Heads so that further progress takes place in an integrated and coherent manner. I would be more interested in creating Synergy amongst S&T organizations
-Will ensure to bring in enhancement in the R&D Budgets as well as Development Budgets of S&T based organizations. It however shall be ensured that this enhancement is linked with the performance and delivery in a given priority sector associated with specific organizations.
-It would be ensured that all future R&D projects undertaken by MoST organization are market driven to bring in benefits for the country.
Q. What are your comments on celebration of World Standards Day?
Ans: As you all know that Every year 14th October is celebrated as the "World Standards Day" by the National Standards Bodies (NSBs) in collaboration with International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The prime objective of celebrating World Standards Day is to remind us about the global acceptance and importance of standardization in the world to promote business, industry, government, and consumer's satisfaction worldwide.Standardization has long been an important engine for innovation and economic growth but due to the world transitions to a truly global economy, standards have taken on special significance, helping organizations to compete internationally.
This day is being celebrated since 1970 to pay tribute to the efforts of thousands of experts worldwide who have been continuously contributing towards the cause of development of International standards thus playing a key role towards uplifting of the quality of human life through standards based management approach.
Q. Your short comments on the importance of Standardization?
Ans: International standards gather the experience of experts and enable organizations to remain competitive and gain new customers, while maintaining competitive prices and high quality product. They play a vital role in promoting quality, reliability and consistency for industries and provide major benefits to the global economy and to the lives of people around the world. International standards are now accessible to developing countries thus helping them to make the best use of their human and material resources.
Conformance to International Standards plays a critical role in promoting and creating consumer choice and confidence for products and provides much needed stimulus for growth of the economy. Standards help organizations meet their customers' needs by focusing and optimizing on company processes as well as the quality issues. Regulators can use international standards as a means to show compliance and as a base for market and consumer friendly regulations. Consequently consumers can feel assured that international standards promote resolution on issues that matter to them, like product labeling or safety etc. International Standards are essential and integral tools for penetrating markets and development of countries. Thus promoting quality consciousness would provide Pakistan's industry with an opportunity to increase productivity and enhance the quality of its products.
Q. What activities are being undertaken by the PSQCA to celebrate this day ?
Ans: I understand that the various activities such as Seminars/ Conferences/ Essay Competitions / Awards giving to Technical experts / Awareness raising through print as well as Electronic Media are taking place throughout the world, to celebrate this Day. In Pakistan, PSQCA, on behalf of Federal Government has also planned such activities to show its commitment, dedication and importance attached to Standards.
The launching of Essay Competition by PSQCA, amongst the University students at provincial level, on the WSD theme is laudable as it would definitely help our new generations to understand, support and help the implementation of quality based thinking approach in their routine life.
The role of Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) towards projection of the importance of international standards' development to facilitate trade and spreading knowledge through dissemination of technological advances is appreciable.
Q. This year's theme selected by ISO ie "Standards make cities smarter" is unique but quite challenging . Your comments?
Ans: You are absolutely right. This yearstheme "Standards make cities smarter" is not only unique but at the same time posing very big challenges for a country like us to keep pace with the international developments. This theme, even for Pakistan , calls for a comprehensive working mechanism to face the ever growing challenges being faced by us due to increased population, energy crises and increased migration of citizens towards bigger cities of the country apparently due to stressed economic pressures and lack of facilities in smaller cities. Development of a collaborative and trust building support mechanism is thus required to bring radical changes in the overall city management systems.
The urban development has resulted in paradigm shift in the 21st century, and the research activities for smarter cities has become a priority task with direct participation from industrial and political entities, practitioners and the scientific co- mmunity. The Information Technology and communications, although has advanced exponentially and the concepts of smart cities has become a reality, but the concept is still under development and require focused attention.
Establishment of Smart Cities requires addressing different dimensions on sustainable basis, such as Economy, Mobility, Transportation and Human capital. It's time to develop and practice Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) through latest modules for collection of real time data, its instant analysis and sharing without compromising on the security features. Standards provide important guidelines for system development towards all aspects of city life, including energy-efficient buildings, intelligent transportation, improved waste management, building sustainable communities and much, much more. Development and implementation of globally harmonized international standards is thus the key to success.
Q. Whatfuture strategy would you suggest to the Ministry and PSQCA for undertaking in this regard at this important point of time?
Ans: I stress upon the Ministry of Science & Technology (MoST) and PSQCA to initiate immediate steps to undertake the development of a comprehensive standards based guideline document in collaboration with all the stakeholders to be followed for establishment of Smart Cities in Pakistan. The document should lay down the required Re-engineered Business Processes through a quality conscious mechanism by adhering to well established standards for achieving sustainable economic growth in the country. I assure full support of the Federal Government in this regard.
Q. What do you foresee with regard to the Role of PSQCA especially in view of issues being faced from provincial Authorities on formulation of Standards?
Ans: I strongly believe that as per International practices there has to be only one Standards Body, which in our case is PSQCA. We have to show a unified face at International forums, so there should be no ambiguity in this regard.
Q. Are you satisfied with the country's present situation with specific regard to Quality related aspects?
Ans: Honestly speaking, Pakistan is not where it should have been by this time. To ensure continual growth in developing countries like Pakistan, much more efforts are needed to create awareness in industry and consumers about the benefits of standards. I believe that the industry of Pakistan, realizing the significance of standardization, is in the process of adopting this quality culture. This is being manifested in the shape of more efficient industrial and business processes, facilitated by standards, empowering the companies to compete internationally.
But I must say there is a lot to be done both by the Public sector as well as the Private sector to make this country more prosperous and development oriented.
Q. What are the future plans / activities that you would like PSQCA to undertake as priority tasks?
Ans: I feel that PSQCA should take initiatives with regard to:
- Establishment of Mobile testing Labs at all the Provincial Headquarters as has been done in case of Karachi.
- We must establish a Quality Control Testing lab facility in southern Punjab to support the manufacturing sector.
- I understand that the PSQCA has very recently started the construction work of Office/ lab facilities project at Quetta. I would ensure that a separate PC-I be approved for installation of state of Art equipment for this lab.
- The proposed Amended Act of PSQCA be sent to the Parliament after taking all the stakeholders on board for making this Authority more effective and vibrant.
- PSQCA must undertake more aggressive steps towards implementation of Technical Regulations in the country. It must ensure to seize units involved in illegal / non-conforming products. I have been briefed that the PSQCA in the last one year has seized over 220 units on observance of non-compliance. Federal Government shall support all actions of PSQCA in this direction.
Q. Your final comments / message on this day?
Ans: I wish to praise the efforts of Ministry of Science & Technology and PSQCA for playing a lead role in the standards development processes and awareness raising regarding the importance of International Standards. In accomplishing this task, PSQCA has rightly involved all the stakeholders such as manufacturers, service providers, consumer associations and the civil society.
I want that the PSQCA, being a National Standards Body, must continue to play its role in a proactive manner to keep the society abreast with the latest developments in the standardization as well implementation of Technical Regulations to protect consumers' right as well help prepare the manufacturing sector of Pakistan to be ready to compete in the global market on the basis of provision of standard products and services benefiting towards an improved economy of our country.
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